For the real stuff, you have to go back to the source. The old school charm and charisma of the original cast and that indescribable, evocative element just can’t be recreated by imitators.
For both Star Wars and Mega Man, the spin offs range in quality from crap to fantastic, but still, none have been able to recapture the magic that the first three entries had.
Just as the original three Star Wars films paved the way for countless spin offs, side stories, sequels, and prequels, the first three Mega Man games are responsible for their own nearly countless follow ups. Mega Man 3 is like The Return of the Jedi in that it’s jam packed with more stuff than either of its predecessors, and while not as beloved as those predecessors, it’s still considered an essential part of the trilogy. Mega Man 2, like The Empire Strikes Back, is considered by most to be the greatest in the series, as it refines what its prequel started, and adds an insane twist ending just to keep you guessing about the next chapter. The first Star Wars film did things with the medium that had never been done before, and Mega Man 1 did the same for videogames (Idle character animation, obtaining weapons from defeat bosses, etc).
It’s not hyperbole to say that Mega Man 1, 2, and 3 are the videogame equivalents to the original Star Wars trilogy. Puzzled by the fact that Mega Man 9, a game that looks older than all three Jonas Brothers combined, was downloaded an estimated 60,000 times on its first day of release? Confused about why just about every videogame website on the internet is abuzz with all this Mega Man related excitement? Then you, my friend, need to bone up on your videogame history, specifically the chapter on 2D action/platforming.