PixlBit

Happy 25th anniversary, Mega Man. Well, I know I’m a few months overdue on it, but I just wanted to share my love for this series. You see, original series came out in 1987, and I’m happy to say that I have been there since the second game. They have grown with me, in a sense. The Mega Man games are some of my favorites, so I decided to do a brief overview on my opinions of the games. It's been a long time since I played some of these, but I hope you get an idea on how the games differ from each other. Because there are so many of them, it can get confusing as to which ones are good, and which ones are skippable. Anyway, the first 6 titles were first released on the NES, so I won't bother to mention that again, but the others came out on different systems. Okay, here I go.

Mega Man: This game is pretty tough! As the first one, the controls are a little loose. Also, the stages range from somewhat hard to very hard. There are also only 6 bosses, making this one the shortest. Not a bad game, but it certainly wasn't the best of the NES games. (oops, I broke my rule lol) Grade C.

Mega Man 2: Everybody likes this game, and they should, because it's pretty good. There are 8 bosses from here on out, which set the precedent for all of the others to come. They were pretty memorable and varied. The controls were tighter as well. The stages and game were pretty easy and short, except for Heat Man's, which I still hate. heh This was the first game to feature the boss rooms as well. Grade A.

Mega Man 3: This is the first game that had any kind of story other than Defeat Dr. Wily. It's my favorite of the original games because of all the extra stuff they put in. Sliding, Rush and Proto Man were added, and were pretty cool elements. The controls were really tight. The stages and bosses were on the hard side, but they weren't terribly unfair. The Doc Robot stages were pretty difficult, but I thought they were cool because they gave the game more stages. Overall, it's one of the more difficult ones to complete, but added story elements, which was good. Grade A.

Mega Man 4: In this game, the antagonist is Dr. Cossack, and retains the elements from MM3. They added in the charge shot and Eddie, another support character that gave you items. There were a couple hidden items as well, like the ones from MM2. The bosses were tricky at times, and designed by a fan art contest in which people sent in their designs. This tradition continued for 4 more games(!). Anyway, the only thing that I didn't like was that the boss weapons were sort of lame. Other than that, there were 2 castles to go through. The difficulty of this game was more in between MM2 & 3. Grade B.

Mega Man 5: In this game, Proto Man kidnaps Dr. Light. Most all of the elements from the previous games are present: sliding, Rush, charge shot, Beat, and 2 castles. I don't think they really added in anything new for this title. I thought that the levels were pretty interesting, but not so much the bosses. Supposedly, the game is almost as easy as MM2, but I don't remember exactly. Overall, it was decent, but the formula was starting to become stale at this point. Grade C.

Mega Man 6: Sure, Mr. X, we all know you're Dr. Wily by now lol. Supposedly, the excuse for 8 robot masters is a tournament, and when they go berserk, Mega Man has to stop them. Pretty weak, but in this game, the Rush adapters give MM super powers! Okay, they were pretty weak too. I didn't really enjoy this game all that much. The stages were kind of annoying, and the contest winner bosses very uninspired. It felt like they recycled a lot more from other games than they should have. Grade D.

Mega Man 7: This game really changed things up. It was the first 16 bit title on the SNES. So yeah, all new sprites and game style. Mega Man was bigger, as well as the stages. The storyline was pretty straight forward. It was released a year after Mega Man X, so while the game was okay, it just wasn’t as good as that one. It mimicked things like an opening stage and password screen. Other than that, another thing I didn’t like was the bosses were split into groups of 4, so that limited the boss selection screen. Despite the problems, the game was fun to play, not too hard and had Easter eggs of previous games in the series. The Rush adapters make a return as a combined upgrade known as the Super Adapter. Also, you could get Proto Man’s shield if you followed certain steps. New characters include Auto, a robot that runs a shop, and Mega Man’s arch nemesis, Bass and Treble. They were created by Dr. Wily to mimic MM and Rush. Anyway, it was a decent effort, but with a development time of only 3 months, I wish they had a chance to spend more time with it. Something was definitely lost in transition from the NES. Grade B.

Mega Man 8: Released on the original Playstation, this entry was the first to have anime sequences, known as FMV. I liked the story as well. A benevolent robot from outer space named Duo crashlands on the planet due to combating “Evil Energy”. Wily gets ahold of the evil energy…  well, you know the drill. 8 robot masters, Wily fortress, finish. Most of the same elements return from MM7, including the style. It did have all new graphics, but still only 4 bosses are available at a time. Overall, it wasn’t bad, and there were a couple of different kinds of levels as well, like a 2D jetboard level and a flying level using Rush Jet. MM even learned to swim. Heh Anyway, the game wasn’t all that great, and was surpassed by the Mega Man X series at this point. The game is worth tracking down if you can get it with the mini art book though. I feel that this is the one that retired the brand, because it wasn’t very well received. There wasn’t a new console game in the U.S. for 12 years. Grade C.

Mega Man and Bass: For many, this game WAS MM9 for a number of years, because it was a new story set after MM8, but it was only released in Japan. Many people downloaded the ROM online and played it on emulation. One thing that did seem off was that it recycled some bosses from MM8, as well as the graphics. The bosses were laid out in a chart format, and the main antagonist was a robot named King. It did see a U.S. release on the GBA a number of years later, but I think that version is a little stripped down from the Super Famicom version. Still, it was the first game in which you could play entirely as a different character. Guess who that was? But overall, it was below average, and entirely skippable. Grade D.

Mega Man 9: This is the recent MM game that created some buzz mainly due to the fact that it had been so damn long since the last one, 2 generations ago. Also, they brought the 8 bit style back and released it on Xbox Live, Playstation Network, and Nintendo Wii Shop Channel. It was very well received, even though it was a download only title, and developed by IntiCreates, the same ones who did the Mega Man Zero series. Anyway, I thought the game was competent, but looking back at it with a critical eye, you can see some things that are somewhat of a letdown. Since they made the gameplay mirror that of MM2, the most critically acclaimed game, they took out moves like sliding, which actually made the gameplay more fun. Also, the stages are annoying as hell. There are a lot of cheap deaths, and overall, it’s really difficult. Other than that, you can download Proto Man and play a game controlling him instead of MM. (actually, you just pay to unlock him, as he’s already in the data) It was decent, but not the best. Grade C.

Mega Man 10: This is the follow up to MM9 released a couple years ago, and shares many characteristics. Released digitally, 8 bit graphics, and modeled after MM2. Still no sliding or charge. Grr. There was an easy mode in this one because Inti Creates was told to make an easier game. So I guess they sort of compromised. Not every stage has spikes traps this time. You can also download (unlock) Proto Man and Bass modes. I thought this one was much more playable. I liked it, but I admit that I didn’t play all the way through it. Grade B.

Mega Man vs. Street Fighter: Yes, you read that right. It started off as a fan game. Capcom bought the rights and hired the righteous dude to finish the game. It’s sort of a silly title using the 8 bit style, and instead of robot masters, you have to fight the cast of Street Fighter. It’s a PC download only game. I won’t give it a grade because I really haven’t gotten around to playing it yet. You can download it from Capcom’s official website. I just thought I would mention it because I like the concept.

There were also five Game Boy games that used the roman numeral system in their titles. Well technically, the original games used the roman numerals on their title screens for the regular series from MM2 through 7 in English, but the box art is numbers. For the Game Boy games, the boxes used roman numerals. Anyway, those titles were pretty much rehashes, since they reused bosses and remixed stages. Except for Mega Man V, which is all original. You really should track that game down because it was pretty decent.

As for others outside the main series, you had a few. There was a game that was never released called Battle & Chase. It was a Mario Kart clone for the Playstation. Sony felt that there were too many kart racers and said no. Was it a coincidence that Crash Team Racing came out 2 years later? I think not. At least that did see an English release in the Mega Man X Collection. There was the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, released on the PS2 and Gamecube, and included were 2 fighting games, called the Power Battles and Power Fighters. The first one is a very rare cabinet in the U.S. if you can track it down. Also, get the PS2 version of AC and not the GCN one, because they switched the shoot and jump buttons, which was pretty stupid. As far as ports of the originals, you can get MM 1-4 on the Playstation Network. Originally, they were Japan only ports of the originals on the NES, just on the Playstation 1 format. Those games have additional options like remixed music, but the downside is that all of the text is in Japanese. Also, you can get straight ports of MM 1 – 3 on the Nintendo e-Shop, which is on the DS and 3DS.

Alright, well in closing, that’s a lot of games! I tried to keep it as brief as possible. My pics on which games you should try are definitely MM 2 or 3, if nothing else. MM2 gets all the adulation, but MM3 is great if you like a challenge. Mega Man 7 is also a really good title, if you want don’t like the original graphics. Did I mention that game has a hidden fighting game? =D