In 1998, I was trying to rebuild my music collection. We had a house fire over the summer, so I pretty much lost everything.
One day at Fred Meyer, my mom told me to go pick out two CDs from the electronics department. I instantly chose Powertrip by Monster Magnet, as “Space Lord” was my summer jam that year. It was instantly appealing to my then-13-year-old brain. I still love all of Monster Magnet’s first four records. Any band that lets their Hawkwind influence shine through so much will always have lasting appeal to me.
But another CD caught my eye, too. It featured a buff-looking Mega Man on the cover, accompanied by his loyal robot dog pal Rush. It was the soundtrack to the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon.
When I picked up the CD, I only really recognized Skid Row and Sugar Ray on the track listing, but that was enough for me. It came home with me that day.
The CD featured a collection of songs that were used in the ending credits of season 2 episodes. I’ve never seen much of the show, but I remember the toys looking pretty cool. I was also a big fan of the video games and their music.
Since this is an obscure release that means a lot to me, I thought I’d do a retrospective on it and go track by track. Destructoid previously released a writeup on the album, but I found it to be both dismissive and petty. I want to look at the actual songs and see how they hold up and how they (absolutely do not) work in the context of Mega Man.
I also didn’t buy the actual CD again. It tends to sell for at least $30 (if not way more) on eBay, and I don’t want to support Amazon. Also, the only CD player I own is in my car. So we’ll use YouTube instead.
If you’d like to save the full YouTube playlist, you can find it here.
Feel free to listen to each song as you read my blurb about the track– I hope you find something you like!
The Dragon Fortress 