Mega Man games were always at the top of my list when it came time for me to celebrate another birthday or Christmas. And, on the rare occasion that I made good grades in school, I always asked for one of the Mega Man titles. Many of the games shared the same predictable storyline. The main antagonist, Dr. Wily, had his evil little plot against the world and never seemed to give up. It was very similar to how Bowser, from the Super Mario Bros. series, never gave up on capturing Princess Peach or how the Joker never stopped pursuing Batman.
A mundane, predictable storyline didn't stop me from traversing and blasting my way through the many different stages of the Mega Man titles, though. Below, I've comprised a list of my top 10 all-time favorite weapons found in the Mega Man series for the NES.

10. Charge Kick - Mega Man V
This weapon allows you to slide into enemies, causing damage. In fact, it's the only weapon that allows you do such a thing. It proved to be quite effective against one Robot Master, Wave Man. Without it, Wave Man was pretty difficult to beat.

9. Shadow Blade - Mega Man III
This is a poor man’s Metal Shooter. It can shot in all different directions, but the range is limited and the number of uses is even more limited. In the end, it's a handy weapon that can get you out of many seemingly irreversible jams.

8. Magnet Missile - Mega Man III
This weapon not only seeks out your enemies, but also the projectiles that enemies can use against you. What better way to show Wily’s metal-like creations a trick or two. It doesn’t work on all enemies, but still proves to be a very useful weapon.

7. Pharaoh Shot - Mega Man IV
Similar to the Atomic Fire weapon, the Pharaoh Shot allows you to charge. You can even damage enemies without firing a single shot. While less powerful than a fully-charged Atomic Fire, you get more use out of the Pharaoh Shot.

6. Leaf Shield - Mega Man II
This weapon is very similar to other weapons: Skull Barrier, Star Crash, and Plant Shield. With Leaf Shield, though, this weapon cracks the top 10 because of some tricky places in Wily’s castle and Crash Man's stage.

5. Centaur Flash - Mega Man VI
Centaur Flash emits a powerful, blinding light that. It makes enemies look forward to not seeing you. It's not very effective on the stronger enemies, but it can really help out in some if the places in Mr. X’s castle.

4. Atomic Fire - Mega Man II
This was the first weapon you could use to charge up to deal extra damage. You couldn't get as many shots off using a full charge, but the shear amount of damage made up for that facet. Have you tried this on Wood Man?

3. Flash Stopper - Mega Man IV
This is like an improvement over Flash Man’s Time Stopper from Mega Man II. You don’t have to use it all at once, and you can fire your arm cannon while the time is frozen. These two improvements are why I rank this weapon as third on my list.

2. Thunder Beam - Mega Man
Thunder Beam takes out enemies in front of, or above you. You may not this weapon deserves such a high ranking, but in Mega Man you can pause and unpause while beams deal damage multiple times against enemies.

1. Metal Shooter - Mega Man II
Not only can you shoot scraps of rigid metal in all different directions, but you get a lot of uses before the weapon becomes depleted. It works great on bosses too. Did I mention that you can shoot it from across the entire screen as well?