Review of Mega Man: Robot Master Field Guide

As a Mega Man fan, to say the last year has been easy would be a lie. I saw the light at the end of a ten year-long tunnel snatched away from me in the form of Mega Man Legends 3 (a game I would have bought the 3DS for but a BIG part of that is Nintendo's fault) and Capcom's decision to shelve the series out of what appears be spite for Kenji Inafune's insanely bizarre exit. Crazy as the last one truly was, I'm probably the only "fan" that's quote unquote happy Capcom pulled the plug. What was the last great Mega Man game? 1997's Mega Man X4? The last few Mega Man X games? A painful slap in the face. So while I'm sure some are angry with me now missing out on Legends 3 is a small price to pay to ensure that a developer like Inti never gets near the license again. (Okay, I'll admit Inti had some good composers in their ranks but that's as far as I'll go.)

Anyway, like most people I put in my pre-order for this thing over a year ago. The e-mails declaring it's delay almost became a running gag. So now we have the book and while it's a great companion piece to the Complete Works books I'm afraid I'm going to be a little bit critical with this one. Why? Well, my main gripe is the fact I already know everything this book had to tell me outside a one new factoid about Top Man. Beyond that I've read all the information that's in here on various websites. Yeah, I'll admit it's nice to have it on hand in book form but I was honestly hoping for some previously unreleased info. What's here is mainly taken from Mega Man and Bass which people have already translated from emulated ROM images years ago.

Another thing that somewhat bugs me is the guide's lack of explanation. For example, the book tells you that Flame Man changes his oil three times a day but it doesn't tell you what this behavior refers to in the real world (although anyone that's taken a World Cultures class in their high school days should have an honest clue) but younger players/readers may not make such connections.

That said, the Robot Master Field Guide is a nice book but it doesn't even begin to challenge either Complete Works book. I would definitely suggest grabbing those first if you haven't already. But in all honesty the nicest thing I can say about this is book is the price is right.