Mega Man Among IGN’s “Ten Characters We Want in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale”

This one slipped under our radar, but not by too much. Last month saw more reveals in the upcoming PlayStation answer to Super Smash Bros., PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, and Sony has made it abundantly clear that third parties are indeed invited. Naturally, the Blue Bomber made the list– why wouldn’t he, especially since he didn’t make it into Brawl.

Incidentally, for those who didn’t know, Sony’s Santa Monica studio– where this game is being developed– is where now-former Capcom fighting game guru Seth Killian went following his tenure at the house of Street Fighter. With him being a well-known fan of Mega Man, perhaps there is a chance he might be able to make a slight push and open up communications for such a thing to happen? Mind, that’s purely speculation on our part, but wouldn’t that be nice?

On the other hand, there is the question of which Mega Man should be included, if any. IGN argues for the Classic version, who is the original, of course. He has two games (Mega Man 8 and Mega Man Battle & Chase) under his belt, plus the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, Complete Works, and Power Battle Fighters collections in Japan. He has also been featured in the first two Marvel vs. Capcom games, which have shown up on various Sony platforms.

And though Capcom often depicts the series as its own separate thing, there is Mega Man Powered Up to consider as well.

Mega Man X, on the other hand, was the first one to set foot on the PlayStation (Rockman X3 in Japan on 4/26/96). Plus, he has more original games (i.e. not remakes/collections) to appear on Sony’s platforms, including Mega Man X4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and Command Mission. Mega Man X Collection on the PlayStation 2 brings many of these together, and Maverick Hunter X is like a sweet, sweet cherry on top.

Oh, and we can’t forget Zero’s appearance (and his X costume) in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Then we have MegaMan Volnutt from Mega Man Legends. While not the most popular member of the family, this is a series literally built for the PlayStation, with all of its key entries appearing on Sony’s platforms (no, we’re not counting Legends 3). Mega Man Legends and its sequel appeared on both the original PlayStation and were re-released in Japan on the PlayStation Portable, while The Misadventures of Tron Bonne was exclusive to the first PlayStation.

Not to mention the cast’s role in Namco X Capcom, though like so many other titles, it never made it to our shores. On the other hand, Tron Bonne and her Servbots’ appearances in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and 3 did.

And just for completion’s sake, MegaMan.EXE from Mega Man Battle Network and Zero from Mega Man Zero both left the comfort of Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance and GameCube platforms to appear in Onimusha: Blade Warriors, itself a Smash Bros.-ish installment in that series. And who can forget Mega Man from Street Fighter X Tekken— a Sony-exclusive character, at that?

Discussions about which Mega Man should appear in a Super Smash Bros. title tend to be interesting, particularly as Nintendo’s platforms are where so many of these Blue Bombers were born. But as you can see above, with PlayStation, the rules change a bit– while many believe that Mega Man Classic is one of the more obvious choices for Nintendo’s series, that doesn’t seem so much the case when we look at Sony.

With that said, which Mega Man do you think belongs in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale?