As a newcomer to mega man, which entry should I jump into?

[P0MK0NTHA1]

I want to get into megaman but theres so many entries and legacy collection...

Can I jump into megaman 11 right away or which entry is best as an introduction to the series? thanks

[Narrowmind]

Mega Man 2 is widely considered one of the very best and the one I'd recommend most. There's no reason you can't start with the original legacy collection, even 1, but that is more brutal than most modern gamers can handle. That said, 2 is more relaxed and they're mostly accessible, but I found 11 fantastic. IX and X were also incredible, but they were really hard to me - not like 1, because there are more ways to cheese your way to victory. But it's just my opinion. If you really want to get in, why not start with the originals?

[Make]

The classic Mega Man games don't have any type of overarching story, it's closer to a Saturday Morning Cartoon format where each game is basically a new episode.

Major characters who get introduced in games may appear in later entries (Protoman gets introduced in MM3, Bass gets introduced in MM7) and some gameplay enhancements (sliding in MM3, charge shot in MM4) which might make earlier games feel weird without them.

Otherwise, I think MM11 is a great place to start as it has difficulty options and is audio visually very pleasing. Older games can be hard, but the newer collections of older games have various functions that makes the games easier.

Mega Man X series is set after original Mega Man games and you might want to get familiar with classic games for that reason. The only MM series where you have to play the games in an strict order are Mega Man X 1-8, Zero 1-4, then ZX and ZX Advent.

Battle Network 1-6 takes place in an alternate universe, but you want to play them in an order as well.

Legends and Star Force games do not have collections yet. Supposedly Legends comes after ZX series (for lore reasons) and Star Force is set in the same universe as Battle Network, but in a distant future.

[Hotel Security]

>Can I jump into megaman 11 right away

Yes, you can jump right in. The plot is very simple and serialized so there's no continuity to worry about. Plot is very unimportant in Mega Man games. Even if you were curious who the characters were, a quick read on a wiki could catch you up but I don't feel it's needed. This applies to all the classic MM titles.

> The only MM series where you have to play the games in an strict order are Mega Man X 1-8, Zero 1-4, then ZX and ZX Advent.

With MMX, I don't feel there's as much need to go in order. The plot is such a jumbled mess that it's not worth trying. MMX1-4 are mostly their own storylines and MMX5 is mostly a standalone title outside of the "Zero goes crazy stuff" which is hinted in MMX4. MMX6 is completely standalone, as is MMX7 and MMX8 which were designed as reboots to the series.

For MMZero, Parts 1&2 are mostly standalone. They don't even try to have a deep backstory until MMZero 3 which retcons a bunch of things from the previous games to rush in a new villain. But I'd agree MMZ3 and MMZ4 should be played in that order.

With ZX and Advent, yes those should be in order if only to marvel at the gross retcons of the original ZX's plot in Advent.