Has it been a week already? Well then, it’s time to hop into the time machine and see what has happened in the weeks gone by. We’ve got a couple of heavy hitters to talk about this week, so let’s hop right in.

Back on March 23rd, 1995, Mega Man 7 was released for the Super Nintendo. Even though it was the third Mega Man game to hit the console, it was the first and the last from the original series to appear on the system. Mega Man 8 followed on the Playstation in 1997, and Rock Man 9 (or Mega Man & Bass) showed up on the Super Famicon in Japan in 1998 and the Gameboy Advance in 2003.

Mega Man 7 took the formula built over 8 years and over a dozen preceeding titles, and well, it didn’t really change much. The major difference in the game was that instead of being able to pick from all 8 robot bosses from the get-go, you had your choice of four. The other four were unlocked after completing the first half of the game. It just goes to show that it took Capcom 10 years and the release of Mega Man Legends to change up the formula. Legends wasn’t very successful, however, and it wasn’t until the release of Mega Man Battle Network in 2001, that Capcom had another successful series to milk.

Let’s fast forward 8 years, to March 24th, 2003. On that day, 600,000 people around the United States were eagerly lined up outside of their favorite gaming stores, waiting to get their hands on the newest release. Long before Halo Jesus, it was a Nintendo game that set the record for most pre-orders. That game was The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

While Wind Waker’s formula stayed close to the heart of Ocarnia of Time and Majora’s Mask, it was the graphical style that set this game apart from its predecessors. The game featured beautiful cel-shaded graphics that was quite a controversey surrounding the time before the game’s release. Whether you were a fan of the graphical style or not, Wind Waker proved itself worthy of being called a Legend of Zelda game, and featured a robust combat system that showed up in a slightly tweaked form in Twilight Princess.

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