Having only seen the Pac-Man episode of Secret Level; it was hard to guess what to expect from the Mega Man short. The only real unifying principle of any episode of Secret Level is that engages with some kind of idea from the video game in question. As it turns out, the Mega Man short was a lot more faithful than I could have reasonably expected. By which I mean, this seven-minute film hews so close to the source material it kind of looks like a pilot episode for a full series. I doubt anyone will ever actually make any such series, due to the sheer quantity of action. But wow, this is some proof of concept.
If you think back to pretty much any Mega Man game you’ve ever played, the plot is either implicitly or explicitly that the evil Dr. Wily has turned all the normally peace-loving robots in the world peaceful for his own purposes and Mega Man, or Rockman, is tasked by his inventor Dr. Light with putting a stop to that madness. While it’s strange to think so, I’d never really noticed the extent to which Mega Man is just a riff off of Astro Boy before. Then again, I expect most Americans are in the same position. In the English language, at least, Mega Man is probably the better-known character and so otherwise known for just fighting other robots, rather than any actual plot, that he doesn’t even seem particularly anime.
Yet Rockman here, in full 3D animated glory is fully plot-driven, stepping into his destiny as the protector of his world despite Dr. Light’s misgivings about Rockman not actually being designed for combat. Rockman is noble, resourceful, and most importantly, so small in stature and autonomous that he…well, I don’t really want to spoil it, short as this short is. Let me put it this way- if you ever wanted an epic cinematic to play right before you start a game of Mega Man, this episode of Secret Level is basically just that cinematic. While purists might quibble over the fact that the main weapon he ends up using isn’t the Mega Buster, at the end of the day, this is most definitely who most of us roleplay when we play Mega Man, and this is the world he lives in too- just with much nicer graphics.
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