"And now for something completely different."

Ahh... the mid-to-late 90's. Remember the good old days of PS1/N64 when 3D really wasn't quite there yet? Seeing through Mario's head, the awkward block-shaped cars of Twisted Metal, and Lara's big square butt... but it was 3-D! Holy crap! How was the blue bomber's jump into 3-D? Well... different, that's for sure, and nowhere near as smooth as Mario or Link's, but I believe he fared pretty well assuming you can separate the Mega Man Legends games from the Mega Man and Mega Man X games.

Therein lies the reason why some people just won't like these games. They're really not "Mega Man" games. To be honest, I would say that Mega Man Legends has more RPG elements than platforming elements. In my opinion, however, this is what allows for the game to work on some levels. It's fun to find new special weapons and buster parts to customize/upgrade Mega Man.

Another thing that might drive people away from this game is its graphical style. I'm not referring to the blocky polygonal graphics, I'm referring to its extremely anime-like presentation. In fact, at times, it almost feels like an anime with its charming characters and silly storyline. I found this to be a plus, but obviously if you're one of those who hates that "Japanese crap," you're not going to enjoy the style.

I don't have a whole lot more to say about this one, but one thing I absolutely have to address is how much we take voice-acting for granted these days. While you can certainly find worse voice acting (i.e. "Dr. Wahwee" from Mega Man 8) a lot of the dialogue just sounds awkward or out of place. Of course, I'm writing this in 2010, 12 years after its release. 12 years ago, I probably wouldn't have thought it was awkward, I would have thought it was sweet to see voices in a video game. I missed subtitles though, as some characters speak more clearly than others.

All in all, I'm glad I gave this game a chance, even if I was 10 or so years late. The characters have a certain undeniable charm (particularly Tron and the servbots) that I couldn't help but enjoy. The game is far from perfect and isn't nearly as classic as the original Mega Man games, but it was trying something different, which sometimes deserves credit even when it doesn't quite get it right. Does this mean I'll be playing Mega Man Legends 2? To quote the servbots, "Roger!"

(Also, can you believe I found a sealed copy of this game this many years later? Already owning a copy, I gave the sealed copy to a friend who recalled enjoying the game when he was younger but never beating it. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed this belated Christmas gift.)