BombermanBoard

Duke Serkol · #39 Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2010 5:02 pm

Soniti 254 wrote:

I'm pretty sure the only reason Duo was put in was 1) to promote Mega Man 8, and 2) to add an additional playable character in the game. Because of the nature of the game, he really didn't need to make an appearance in the game. He was thrown in to add more spice to the original game's formula and separate the sequel from the original more easily.

Yes, however none of that necessarily implies his story to be inconsequential.

Soniti 254 wrote:

I personally don't think a Mega Man fighting game should be considered canon, or it should at least be taken very lightly. I sure wouldn't take these game's plots very seriously, as the games didn't even have a real plot as far as I know. It's just an even more basic and watered down version of "Wily's up to no good again, stop him".

Different game mechanics do not equate to non canon. And though the game may start out with only as much plot as Megaman 2 did, the multiple endings are much more elaborate than nearly anything else we had in the classic series.

Soniti 254 wrote:

Really, the only thing that's revealed in these games is that Zero was made by Wily (although it was hinted at in X4 and X5 covered this in greater detail) and he brought up this "secret project" (and this is just incredibly vague and, as far as we know, it could have just been hinting at a new Mega Man game altogether). And it's just featured in Bass's ending in the second game to boot. So I'm not really following with just how "plot heavy" these games are.

Firstly, this was the first time Protoman and Bass took a really active role in opposing Wily. That, in and of its own, is a significant plot development, especially since Bass was made by Wily. Secondly, you did not mention several important things. Megaman's ending in Power Battles shows us the moment Light realizes he needs to create a robot capable of making its own decisions. Protoman's Ending in Power Fighters reveals he has a fatal flaw that will eventually kill him. And of course, the fact that Duo can sense evil energy from deep space, which we cannot discount as non-canon just because his presence in the game could only be a way to promote MM8 (don't get me wrong, it totally was meant to do that, but as said before it doesn't necessarily have to be only for that and make his story rubbish by default)
Finally, considering that, as you point out, X4 had already revealed a connection between Zero and Wily as well as the Maverick Virus, believing that Wily's other project brought up in the same speech ha makes about Zero is anything but the virus seems excessive caution to me.
All the more so when in Power Battles Wily only decides (like Light decides to make a self determined robot) to make a stronger robot to defeat both Megaman and Bass, whereas in this one, the game with space robot Duo coming back to hunt for Evil Energy, he now has blueprints and also brings up this other project.

Soniti 254 wrote:

Let's face it, Power Fighters/Battle was a fan service game in just about every sense of the term. They are games that were made pretty much exclusively with their fans in mind, and I doubt a lot of non fans would've played this.

And that makes it somehow non-canon? Because it was aimed at the only people that actually care about canon in the first place?

Soniti 254 wrote:

This comparison doesn't really work because, as far as I know, none of the Zelda games are connected in any way besides sharing characters, themes, and settings. So, in a sense, there is no real canon in the Zelda franchise (I hear people have tried making a timeline to connect the games and make sense of it, but it's just a huge mess. And I'm pretty sure Nintendo even said "he's not the same Link", which further nulls any possibility of the games being connected).

Ok, I'm sorry to say but you clearly don't know enough of the subject matter here. It's not that you are obliged to of course, but you can't shoot down my parallel there without that knowledge.
The Zelda series works like this: every one or two games Nintendo makes a new Link that lives in the same world but in a different age than the previous ones. Early games in the series had very loose connections and this is why there's all that timeline theorizing going on. The 3D games, on the other hand, have clear and definite ties to one another. Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess and The Wind Waker all are tied back to the events of Ocarina of Time, whereas Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks tie in with those of The Wind Waker.
All these connections are set in stone, even though the only games out of those that feature the same Link are respectively Ocarina of Time-Majora's Mask and The Wind Waker-Phantom Hourlgass. Similarly Adventure of Link continues the story of the first Link we've known from where the original Legend of Zelda on NES had left it.
So yeah, Zelda canon is a reality and Nintendo has confirmed several times that they have some big complex document to keep track of it. They apparently prefer to keep it for themselves because they realize a lot of fans continue to be interested in the games also (if not mostly) because they can nerd out over whether Ocarina of Time is still the "Seal War" of A Link to the Past's backstory or not.