Mega Man vs Rockman, which to buy?

[thetallguy24]

I think we can all agree that the original Mega Man has gotten pretty expensive in stores and online. I've got the opportunity to get a real Rockman cart really cheap. For some reason, and maybe I'm being way too much of a purist, it just doesn't feel the same to have a copy of Rockman over having a copy of Mega Man, although I know they are identical.

Would any of you feel the same, or am I just being too picky?

[Tanooki]

Personal taste, and your personal taste is picky enough to care.

It's just not expensive enough for you to jump ship is all. Last year I ended up helping a friend out on digital press forums who double ordered two copies of Rockman 5 overseas. I bought his second one and in the end I didn't need it, so I ended up paying like $20 and that allowed me to cover him, and cover my expenses and paypal+ebay fees to get it to someone who needed it.

If you don't care about reading the english on screen I'd think that a $20-25 Rockman 5 is better than an $80 Mega Man 5 to get the same experience minus the story. I sold my Bonk and Bubble Bobble 2 to help greatly fund my Pinbot pinball machine, but I knew I wanted Bonk still, and noticed that $300-380 NES cart is a $20-40 famicom game. It's worth it.

Hell even Lickle is $100 vs $1000 for Little Samson. At some point you got to draw the line so you don't get sucked in.

[Kkasino]

My advice is : Don't forget have fun, games should be about fun not about nice things on the shelf ;

[Gunstar Green]

As far as the NES games go, I wanted all of the original Mega Man games on NES since they're the ones I played as a kid. Granted I started collecting NES games when they were extremely affordable, a time when Mega Man 5 was considered super rare and expensive at a whopping $20-$30.

I didn't care as much when it came to the Game Boy and SNES games where I filled in the blanks with Rockman titles namely Rockman World V, Rockman 7 and Rockman X3. I probably would have done the same for X2 but I already had the game. I also did this with other expensive US games like Sparkster and Hagane.

So for me personally it was important to have the original six Mega Man games when I was initially collecting them, however if I was just getting into collecting today I think I would have gotten the Rockman titles instead because they're cheaper and have more attractive box art, despite that I'm kind of a sucker for bad 80's and 90's box art.

My advice is : Don't forget have fun, games should be about fun not about nice things on the shelf ;

I agree about having fun but disagree with the rest of the sentiment since having nice things on the shelf is part of the fun to a collector. If you're going to collect games you should have games that you take pride in owning. Otherwise just emulate or use a flash cart.

I guess what I'm trying to say is the game itself is going to be the same regardless of the version, but if someone doesn't appreciate the Japanese version as a collectible then they shouldn't add it to their collection.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I think we can all agree that the original Mega Man has gotten pretty expensive in stores and online. I've got the opportunity to get a real Rockman cart really cheap. For some reason, and maybe I'm being way too much of a purist, it just doesn't feel the same to have a copy of Rockman over having a copy of Mega Man, although I know they are identical.

Would any of you feel the same, or am I just being too picky?

This is one of those age-old "Are you a gamer or collector (or both)?" discussions.

Here's what I think. I can tell you really want to own the North American version of the game. If you import the Japanese cart you'll enjoy playing it, but will feel like "something is missing." You'll eventually cave, buy the North American game, and then have both.

I know because I have done this. I have a loooong-term goal of owning every NTSC-U RPG on SNES. One time at a convention I spotted Breath of Fire II and Dungeon Master Super Famicom carts. I talked myself into buying them: "Just get these, they're cheap and you can read enough Japanese to play them." But it still bothered me that they didn't add anything to my "collection" so I eventually got the North American carts as well. Now I have both. And though I know I can now use my Retron 5 to play a Japanese Harvest Moon or 46 Okunen Monogatari: Harukanaru Eden e in English, I'm gonna hold out until I find the Americans carts for cheap (lol) or save up enough money to get 'em off an eBay seller or whatevs.

In other instances I don't care as much. Take Neo Geo, for example. No region preference here - I'm not a collector of these games (thank God) and I'll just take whatever is cheapest. I have a Japanese AES so it all defaults to the Japanese language anyway. Same thing goes for PC Engine - I have "PC-Genjin" not Bonk's Adventure, and I'm cool with that.

Basically it comes down to your own personal gaming/collecting style.

[Westane]

One option is (sort of but not really) making your own carts with something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Famicom-game-60 ... 1c51aead40

Grab a cheapy cheap NES game you don't mind sacrificing, remove the label, put the Famicom PCB in the adapter and the adapter in the NES shell. Slap on a new label. I did that with copies of Super Metroid and Mega Man X and I don't at all feel bad about it.

[Sarge]

That really is a tough one. I tend to be a purist in some cases, and in others I don't care. I wish I'd jumped on the Lickle train while it was still relatively cheap, or even snagged Little Samson a while back, because unless I find it in the wild, I'll never own it.

I didn't realize that Mega Man had climbed so much in value. It's starting to edge up on tempting, if you can get Rockman at an order-of-magnitude lower price. Knowing me, though, it'd drive me crazy not having the complete series.

One option is (sort of but not really) making your own carts with something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Famicom-game-60 ... 1c51aead40

Grab a cheapy cheap NES game you don't mind sacrificing, remove the label, put the Famicom PCB in the adapter and the adapter in the NES shell. Slap on a new label. I did that with copies of Super Metroid and Mega Man X and I don't at all feel bad about it.

And that would probably drive me even more bonkers!

[Gunstar Green]

I could never cannibalize a working cartridge for its shell, nor would I honestly want to alter the appearance of the Japanese cartridge just for the sake of uniformity. An already dead cartridge shell maybe, but I agree with Sarge, it'd bother me more than just having the Japanese game.

Obviously this answer is going to be different for everyone. I think for me it lies with personal nostalgia. The Japanese games I have with US releases aren't ones I had as a kid. Even with sets it doesn't bug me a whole lot, I have Ninja Ryukenden III instead of Ninja Gaiden III simply because it's a much more playable game.

There's also cases like Bionic Commando and Cybernator where I also own Top Secret and Assault Suits Valken because I have nostalgia for the US releases but also want the arguably better uncensored originals.

[ExedExes]

When I first saw the thread I thought of this -





I wouldn't be surprised if the US NES MMs are going up in value. We all know about the GB versions.

[Gunstar Green]

The cheapest are 2 and 3 and even they've crossed the $20 mark despite being ridiculously common games. The others are all really getting up there.