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After having a string of successes on the relatively big screen, it was inevitable that Mega Man would make the jump into a more portable format. Mega Man's first tiny-screen foray on the Game Boy delivered the same level of non-stop platforming action, though with a few noticeable adjustments. For starters, he is no longer the "Blue Bomber", thanks to the monochromatic Game Boy screen -- now he's more of an Olive Green Bomber at best. And, sadly, given the limited screen size, Mega Man's surrounding feel much more cramped, a plague felt especially during boss battles when it sometimes feels like you're brawling in a crawlspace. His life meter also took a slicing and is much shorter. Other than these issues, Mega Man's quest still feels natural on the Game Boy. The first game features eight revived Robot Masters, pulled from the ranks of Mega Man and Mega Man 2 for the NES, along with Enker, the first of many original bosses, dubbed the "Mega Man Killers".
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With the success of the first game came a necessary sequel, which shares pretty much all gameplay with its predecessor. This one involves a strange storyline: after stealing a time machine from the world's more renowned time study institute and travels into the future (though only 37.426 years -- nothing major). He captures the future version of Mega Man and brings him back to the present as Quint, whom Mega Man must fight before taking down Wily himself. (The Japanese version of the game contradicts this by saying that he was built from scratch by Dr. Wily after he travels to the future.) Before all this, of course, Mega Man must take down eight Robot Masters, torn generously from Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 for the NES. Outsourced to a developer with little knowledge of Mega Man prior, series co-creator Keiji Inafune has openly declared that Mega Man II was disappointing and poorly designed. That explains why the music is so coarse on the ears. At least Rush appears in this one in all his natural forms (Rush Coil, Rush Jet, and Rush Marine).
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Mega Man III was considered a return to form after the questionable design choices of Mega Man II. It was developed by the same outsourced company as the first one, as were the other two in the classic Mega Man series for Game Boy. This time around, Dr. Wily is using an oil platform to siphon energy from the center of the Earth as fuel for his next world control project. Mega Man, in his infinite humanoidist wisdom, must take down all of Wily's Robot Master guardians (all of whom previous starred in Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 4 for NES) and stop the dastardly deeds. Rush also appears again, though not in his Marine form, so you can't use him as a submarine. We also meet Punk, the second of the self-proclaimed "Mega Man Killers"! This game was the beginning of the uphill quality rise of the Game Boy titles.
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