“Elec Man” from Mega Man, composed by Manami Matsumae and released in 1987

When I hear this tune, I still hear the theme song to “M.A.S.K.” from the 80s.  Classic show.

This takes me back to a better time, when games were so unbelievably hard for three reasons: 1) Level of difficulty was just different at the time, maybe because of the amount of memory on a cartridge being so small that the developers didn’t want the player to beat it too quickly, 2) the culture of difficulty was consistent – everything was hard (and beating a game really boosted your self-esteem and feelings of accomplishment) and 3) I was 9 years old.

Being born in 1983, the math doesn’t really work out on that last point.  My two cousins had Mega Man 2 and when we all got together at Christmas one year, we played it for hours.  Maybe I soaked in all of the knowledge and know-how from my older cousins and brother, but I could actually play this game and do reasonably well.

Then I got the first Mega Man and I got destroyed… often.

Those falling platforms in Guts Man’s level? Ahhhhhh!! I must have spent months on those.

I could beat Cut Man… that was a huge accomplishment.

That game whooped my butt.  Even playing it as an adult on the 20th Anniversary Edition for PS2 was not easy task.  Granted, I was better, but it didn’t make the game less hard.

Anyway, post your thoughts in the comments if you have solid memories with this game.

Also, retweet if you dig!

Thanks for reading,
Kenley