Mega Man Legends (1997)
What Ocarina of Time was for Zelda, Mega Man Legends was for the blue bomber. It ditched 2D levels for an expansive, Saturday-morning-cartoon-esque world full of sprawling underground dungeons hiding powerful gear and dark secrets. I still remember the first time I went down a hatch, creeped around a corner, and immediately got skewered by a dual-drill-armed Sharukurusu. It was my first taste of open-world exploration and massive sandbox battles. Everything in this game was firing on all cylinders and it’s a travesty we never got Mega Man Legends 3. — Ethan Gach
