Tag: Mega Man

Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026

The World Video Game Hall of Fame has announced the games that will be competing for induction as part of their Class of 2026, and with five returning finalists, this year’s theme seems to be second chances.

So which games will get another chance to earn a plaque on the wall at the Strong Museum of Play’s World Video Game Hall of Fame? Rovio’s Angry Birds, Electronic Arts’s FIFA International Soccer, and Konami’s Frogger will all be going through the voting process for a third time, while NanaOn-Sha’s PaRappa the Rapper and Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial are both getting their second shot at induction.

That leaves seven newcomers to the process and they’re pretty impressive bunch. Konami’s Silent Hill could probably be considered something of a frontrunner after the excellent showing of Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill F in recent years. But the Hall of Fame will also consider Enix’s Dragon Quest (released in North America as Dragon Warrior) for the first time, as well as Bethesda’s oft-re-released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Namco’s Galaga, Riot’s League of Legends, Capcom’s Mega Man, and Jagex’s RuneScape.

The vote now goes to the Hall of Fame’s International Selection Advisory Committee, but the public will also get two chances to have their say in the final inductees.

As always, the Player’s Choice Ballot will be available until March 13th, giving the three games that receive the most votes equal standing with the ballots from the rest of the committee members. And for the first time this year, the World Video Game Hall of Fame is taking a road trip to the Game Developers Conference, where attendees will have the opportunity to vote for the games they’d like to appear on another public ballot.

The World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 will be announced on Thursday, May 7, at 10:30 AM (Eastern Time). And if you’re unfamiliar with any of this year’s finalists, you can learn more about them after the break.

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A Brief History of Video Games – Mega Man 2

The latest VGC Essay looks at the the blockbuster success born out of the simple ambitions of Mega Man 2. Here’s a teaser…

The first Mega Man game is a bit of an odd duck, which has become even more pronounced as the years go by. The graphics are simplistic, the sound is tinny, there’s only six Robot Masters instead of the traditional eight, and there’s even a score counter (a feature that was jettisoned from the dozens of sequels that followed). There’s just a smoothness to subsequent games in the franchise that Capcom had yet to master with the first entry.

But like most Mega Man fans, I only learned all this after the fact. At the time, whatever memories I have of the first game were formed by guide writers who described it as an unfairly difficult game, old episodes of Captain N, and the fact that none of the local rental outlets owned a copy (unsurprisingly, Lee Trevino’s Fighting Golf was always available).

I finally got the chance to see what all the fuss was about with Mega Man 2, which was also the first game in the Mega Man franchise to be spearheaded by Capcom’s Keiji Inafune. With an expanded role in the sequel’s development, Inafune became known as the “Father” of Mega Man to plenty of fans, and codified many of the traditions and patterns the series is known for.

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