Reviews of the Classic Mega Man games

NOTE: These reviews are done in the context of someone playing the games when they came out. These reviews are included here to illustrate my bias toward the Robot Masters if any. My reflections are largely in part similar to the majority of consumers.

Anyone can tell you that Mega Man 6 was published by Nintendo or that Mega Man 2 was made by the developers on their own. That is not what these reviews are about. They are about a consumer's experience and one who was not 9 years old when beginning the series.

The percentage number at the bottom of each game is an average of the Robot Masters score of that game. It fascinates me how the perceived quality of the Robot Masters correlates with the perception of the quality of fans' reaction to the game itself.

Mega Man

 

There are three types of NES players. The first began playing in the 1985-1987 range where most NES games were still simplistic, and Super Mario Brothers was considered in the Action Series. They remember when Kid Icarus, Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda were released. The second, where most people started, began playing in the 1988-1989 range where the NES reached its peak. They remember when Super Mario Brothers 2 and Zelda 2 were released. The third group was from 1990-1994 onward who came after when Super Mario Brothers 3 was released as the NES reached its most sophisticated games and began to wind down. These three periods showed a differentiation within one another as the games were growing in sophistication and graphics extremely rapidly. The first period had most games scroll one way or not at all and was simple but very arcade like. Almost all used passwords. The second period had games that scrolled in all directions, used batteries, and began to adapt to the NES’s strengths rather than being arcade like ports. The third period pushed the hardware and the cartridges were filled with additions to make the sound better.

Mega Man was released in North America at December of 1987, the climax of the first of the three NES periods. At the time it came out, it quietly grew fans. I first found it during a typical weekend stop at the movie rental where I got into the habit of picking up a few NES games. (Renting gamers were fun back then since there were no tutorials to wade through, no pompous introductions, no ‘character background’ to plow through to play a street brawler or a space ship that went *pew* *pew*.)

This caught my eye.


American Box Art

Today, the box art has become a punch line that bloggers and others post and go, “LOL!” But keep in mind of the times. Almost all box art looked like this. In the Atari Era, games looked blocky so the box art was ‘overdone’ in order to attract attention. It was a standard joke then that one goes to the store, sees a great picture on the box, comes home and the Atari games look absolutely nothing like the box. When developers left Atari to form Activision, all Activision game boxes showed screen images on the box to accurately represent their game. Nintendo apparently admired this as their early NES games all showed the blocky images of the game on the cover. In Japan, Nintendo did not control the shape of the cartridges which resulted in the Famicom games having the strangest and oddest cartridge designs. In North America and Europe, Nintendo standardized the cartridge design (by controlling it) but the boxes were a free for all. The only way you knew a game was for the NES was it being in the Nintendo section and having that Nintendo Seal of Quality. Box design for the NES was all over the place and third parties, either unwilling to spend much for box art or too inexperienced, created some hideous covers. Mega Man’s box art is actually good for the time. When I picked it up, the setting on the cover made no sense but it was clear the game was about an armored warrior.


European Box Art. Click HERE for box of stuff.


When playing it, what surprised me about Mega Man was that I could choose any stage I wanted! This was new, but it followed the evolution games were going. Games were growing so long in length that they were beginning to break themselves. The larger ones went the password route. Others, such as Super Mario Brothers, started the ‘Warp Zone’ which was a stage select in itself. Legend of Zelda allowed a free form where players could go into almost any dungeon at any time.


Stage select was stunning back then. It was as if the player began in a Warp Zone!


The stage select was the killer gimmick of Mega Man. Where as most games I rented, if I got frustrated with the first levels, I would say that the developers didn’t know how to make a game and replace it with another. Mega Man made me try out all six stages even if I got frustrated, proclaimed the developers didn’t know what they were doing, and changed the game (such as the beginning of Gut Man’s stage). By the time I got done trying all six stages, I had picked up all the game’s rules and dynamics. Sneakily, the stage select screen kept the player playing, tasting fresh content everywhere, until he became addicted to the meal.


Bullet Hell was this game.

I recall Mega Man being hard but only in certain parts. Elec Man’s stage I thought was impossible at first. I gave up after plunging to my death constant times at the beginning of Gut Man’s stage. The appearing and disappearing blocks drove me mad in Ice Man’s stage. The furthest progress I made was in Cut Man’s stage and Bomb Man’s stage. I still remember falling on the spikes of Bomb Man’s stage constantly as those bullets force you back in Mega Man. The score on top I thought normal. All games had scores. Why should this one be any different? The lack of a score would have been noticeable then. I remember beating Bomb Man first. Eventually, I beat all the Robot Masters but got stuck in the first level of Wily’s stage. I wandered aimlessly through the Robot Master levels until, after hours, wandering into the Magnet Beam in Elec Man’s stage. I returned to Wily’s castle and reached the Yellow Devil who I couldn’t beat (I didn’t know about the start button trick then). I had to return the game then.

I felt the game was good but not good enough for me to purchase it. Wily’s first stage and the Yellow Devil are extremely frustrating, and I didn’t feel any pressing need to finish the game. However, I do remember renting it a couple more times but got involved with other games too much to finish it.


Ice Man’s stage was tough with all that slipping and sliding along with your first encounter with the appearing blocks!

It is hard to criticize Mega Man as it is the first Mega Man. The only flaw was the lack of a password system for a game of such length. Perhaps the stage select was seen for not needing to include a password system?

What gripped me about Mega Man was the Robot Mythos that ran throughout the game in its futuristic type setting added by the terrific bit music. I loved the robot enemies and the mechanical nature of the stages. Robots were cool back then. The Robot Masters weren’t too interesting to me but the stages were. At that time, Mega Man had some serious graphics and the gameplay worked very well. It seemed a little too difficult though.

Mega Man was one of those games you rented but didn’t buy because it was so unique and interesting that it was worth playing but the inconsistent parts between frustration and difficulty kept you from really picking it up. The game seemed rough around the edges.

It is a mistake to judge Mega Man purely from the future and judging it to its sequels. To realize what a breath of fresh air Mega Man was, one needs to play through the games before it. Mega Man was *huge* compared to those games, had amazing graphics, and did provide a sense of awe.


The sprites of Mega Man. It seems as if the game was unfinished.


(First Level of Dr. Wily's Stage as a touchstone of the game's quality)


SCORE: (By averaging the Robot Master scores of this game from the following section)

76.16 %




Mega Man II



When Mega Man 2 appeared at the video store, I rented it. Rarely had a video game grabbed me in such a way as Mega Man 2. From the intro, the game grips you and doesn’t let you go. I recall playing this game like mad. It was so incredibly fun and addictive I couldn’t stop. I remember, for the most part, simply playing around in the stages. I recall getting the Time Stopper and being so happy that I could make those cursed laser beams stop in Quick Man’s stage. First boss I beat was Metal Man, and it was a struggle then. I ended up getting stuck in the first part of Wily’s castle where Mega Man must use Item 1 several times to reach the ladder on the far side. (I was dumb then.) But I was having so much fun, that when I returned the game, I went to the store and bought it. (Twenty years later, I haven’t regretted it.) I showed the game off to my friends, and they showed it to their friends, and it spread virally. Nintendo Power’s first issue demands everyone buy Mega Man 2 as it was a really ‘hot’ game. Before I knew it, everyone knew about Mega Man 2 and loved it.



The question is why is Mega Man 2 so much fun? For starters, there is a password which was sorely missing in Mega Man. But I think there are two major reasons why Mega Man 2 ended up being a block buster.

The first reason is that Mega Man 2 is the most consistently fun video game I have ever played (with obvious contenders such as Super Mario Brothers 3). A good trait about a video game is not how much content is in it, but how little you cannot remove without destroying the experience. There is nothing I would want to take out of Mega Man 2. The game never has periods of frustration as Mega Man did. It wasn’t so much that the game was easier as it was that the stages kept changing and kept surprising. The fantastic music kept the game fun and energetic.

The second reason why Mega Man 2 worked so well is because the weapons gave the player significant control during a stage. I recall simply playing around in the stages with various weapons just for the sport of it. There is nothing more fun than the metal blade which can be thrown in any direction. The quick boomerangs were fun. The time stopper was cool to test around in different parts. Heat Man’s weapon was fun to charge up and play with. Crash bombs were very satisfying to hear the *clink* and *boom*boom*boom. Bubble Man’s weapon proved itself on the trapdoors over spikes, while the leaf shield proved itself on the moving platforms.

If there was a third reason, I’d say the enemies in the stage were much more fun to destroy. In Mega Man, the enemies were gun turrets, missiles, and floating robots. Mechanical chickens, giant frogs, jester on a gear, and robotic shrimp were much more entertaining to watch and destroy.










(First Level of Dr. Wily's Stage as a touchstone of the game's quality)


SCORE: (By averaging the Robot Master scores of this game from the following section)
90.125 %


Mega Man III



I bought Mega Man 3 the day it came out. Many people did. My impressions were that the game wasn’t as consistent as Mega Man 2 but was still very fun. Mega Man 3 has the tightest controls of the entire series. The controls were as solid as Super Mario Brothers 3 and that is high praise. I recall Mega Man 3 being received very well by fans as well. Not as well as Mega Man 2 but, for most people, Mega Man 3 was people’s second Mega Man game.



I would rank Mega Man 3 as my personal favorite of the series. What I really loved was how well done the later stages were and thought the Doc Robot stages were genius. I was thrilled how they established continuity by allowing Mega Man to fight the Mega Man 2 robot masters again with Mega Man 3 weapons. It was as if Mega Man was fighting their ‘spirits’ in those new bodies. It was great to see Spark Man, Needle Man, Gemini Man, and Shadow Man stages all twisted up and redone. I much prefer this over the second castles that would appear in Mega Man 4 and Mega Man 5. The continuity of showing all three games of Robot Masters in the ending was a very nice touch. It felt like Mega Man 3 was part of a trilogy instead of just a stand alone game. In the way, Mega Man 2 was great in how it remembered Mega Man with the Gutsmobile (from Guts Man) and the introduction clearly referenced those past events. Unfortunately, Mega Man 4 and onward never seemed interested in its roots in regards to the intro, story line, or ending. When the games began to ignore the heritage of past robot masters was when Capcom began to lazily reuse them.



Why is Mega Man 3 a successful sequel post-Mega Man 2 while the other games were not? There is one very simple explanation: Mega Man 3 gave us brand new Robot Masters. It did not re-use old Robot Masters concepts, stages, or weapons. Sure, there were some lame Mega Man 3 Robot Masters such as Top Man. But you cannot deny that his stage was fresh and that his weapon was never before seen.

My theory is that axis of quality that the Mega Man games revolve around are the enemies, i.e. the Robot Masters. Good, original, bad-ass Robot Masters make a good Mega Man experience. Recycled, lame Robot Masters with weapons we have used before make a very poor Mega Man experience. This explains why younger people think Mega Man 6, 7, 8 are all ‘amazing’ because that was the first ones they played. The problem was that Capcom kept going back to the first three games and kept reusing weapons, stages, and themes.



Mega Man 3’s Robot Masters were not just original and fresh, Mega Man 3 is the ONLY Mega Man game not to feature ‘element’ Robot Masters. There is no ‘aquatic’ Robot Master. There is no ‘fire’ Robot Master. No ‘ice’, no ‘air’ Robot Masters. After all, once you’ve played Bubble Man, you don’t need to play Aqua Man, Dive Man, and others.

Elements like earth, fire, wind, and water work well in fantasy games. But Mega Man 3, by not using these elements, ended up with more interesting Robot Masters which many fit the robot mythos far better than the ‘element’ robot masters.

One could say Spark Man was a remake of Elec Man. True. But rarely do people consider that because Spark Man was so well done, his stage so unique, and his weapon was nothing like Elec Man’s. And sparks go extremely well with the robot mythos as do magnets. When one looks closely at the Mega Man 3 Robot Master designs, one clearly says they all look like robots. Later Robot Masters would be hard to tell the difference (such as Plant Man and Splash Woman).

Mega Man 3 feels epic especially with the Doc Robot stages. The music is also phenomenal in this game as well. Few games can be the sensation that Mega Man 2 was, but Mega Man 3 kept the momentum going.

Mega Man IV



I bought Mega Man 4 when it first came out as well. I was disappointed by the intro as it seemed too cartoon like. I did like the train sequence. First stage I tried was Toad Man, and I recall marveling at the graphical detail of the rivers and the rain. As I finished the game, I realized that it was not as good as the previous ones. It was the last Mega Man game I bought as I went back to renting.



Why did Mega Man 4 fail? It was because of the Robot Masters. Capcom began recycling them, their themes, and their weapons. How can I be excited by destroying Skull Man when his weapon made me say, “Didn’t I get this weapon in Mega Man 2?” Even the decent weapons just seemed lame. Oh no! Ring Boomerang! Dust shot! Lame! Lame! The Flash Stopper from Bright Man might as well have been from Flash Man. And Toad Man’s ‘rain flush’ was extremely lame. What is fun about Mega Man was having the weapons as a useful way to get through stages. But these weapons either came from older games (like Bright Man), were lame (like Toad Man), or just plain unimaginative (like Dive Man). Mega Man 4 didn’t feel epic as the previous game did. When I beat the game, I felt relief, not exhilaration.



Mega Man 4 felt backwards from the beginning. The controls were no longer as tight. The music, while very good in some parts, just wasn’t as exciting as the last two games. The mega buster slowed down the game and was damn annoying. Instead of hearing wonderful music, I kept hearing that stupid buster charging. The story was insulting to one’s intelligence. (And yes, story did play a part in the previous games. In Mega Man, Wily programs the Robot Masters who were designed for utilitarian purposes, to take over the world. That explained why Guts Man was Guts Man and had his construction stage, why Elec Man was at a power plant, and so on. In Mega Man 2, Wily made the Robot Masters as revenge and to destroy Mega Man. In Mega Man 3, Wily and Light worked on ‘Gamma’ to make world peace and needed Mega Man to hunt down crystals which were held by the Robot Masters. While story doesn’t matter much in games like Mega Man, it became insulting to the player with Dr. X in Mega Man 6 [which was Wily in sunglasses] to Dr. Cossack in Mega Man 4. The reason why the story matters in Mega Man is because it gives purpose to the Robot Masters. Why are the Robot Masters there? If the reason why is stupid then the Robot Masters suffer and the game falters.)



While I was a fan of Rush the dog, introduced in Mega Man 3, I was not a fan of Flip Top. He seemed redundant to the entire experience. Rush, at least, did what the items in Mega Man 2 did. Rush was integral to the gameplay. Flip Top was not.

Mega Man V



After a sour taste in my mouth after Mega Man 4 (which I think is a good game, just not buy worthy then even though I bought it day one), I rented Mega Man 5 as Nintendo Power pushed this game very hard. First boss I tried was Gravity Man, naturally.



Once again, my thoughts were similar to Mega Man 4. Why am I using weapons that were in earlier games? Why do these stages seem familiar? And

what the hell is with that jet bike in Wave Man’s stage? Gimmicks were beginning to creep up within the stage and within stage bosses. I hated how Gyro Man could hide behind clouds. The music was beginning to get very poor.



I did enjoy some stages. Gravity Man’s stage was fun. Even though Star Man’s stage felt like Bubble Man’s stage, I enjoyed how they used low gravity of space to explain Mega Man’s high jumping.



Mega Man 5 was the introduction of B.E.A.T. the robotic bird which Mega Man could obtain after collecting the letters of MEGA MAN V in each of the levels. This began the cursed trend of collectables in Mega Man. BEAT wasn’t too much fun anyway except on vanishing and reappearing Wily (hehehe, no wonder Capcom disabled that element of BEAT in future Mega Man games).

Mega Man VI



”I can’t believe they’re coming out with another one!” I thought when I saw this game appear. I knew that Capcom decided to shelve Mega Man 6 but Nintendo wanted to publish it (and they did) to keep the NES alive as long as possible. Mega Man 6 was released in 1994! Yikes! No wonder no one paid attention to this game. Unfortunately, it is not like anyone missed anything.



”Plant Man!?” everyone exclaimed when viewing the stage select screen for the first time. “What the Hell is a Yamato?” someone else asked. “Tomahawk Man?” another one asked with despair. Yes, it was sad how far Mega Man had fallen. The Robot Masters designs were atrocious. And, again, their weapons were from previous games as was the themes. Did we need Blizzard Man and Flame Man?

The new gimmick in Mega Man 6 was multiple paths in stages. I hated these. They diluted the regular stage experience. This moved Mega Man from being an action game to becoming something more like an adventure game.



What I did like was the Rush adaptors. These were so cool. I normally didn’t like the ‘additions’ of stupid friends for Mega Man except for Rush because he was merely a connection to the items of Mega Man 2. Rush was already integrated into the game play and didn’t feel ‘tacked on’. The Rush Adaptors also felt integrated into the game play. The jetpack was incredibly fun to play around with.

Mega Man 6 is largely an abomination. Aside from the Rush adaptors, I found nothing redeeming about the game. In hindsight, Capcom shouldn’t have allowed it to be published. It should have been canned completely.

Mega Man VII



Ahh, Mega Man’s first 16-bit adventure! While Mega Man X was the true gripping 16-bit Mega Man experience, Mega Man 7 fell flat on its face. I hated the game when it began. Mega Man 7 began incorporating many elements that became habits in, what we today call, ‘hardcore’ games. Here’s what I found wrong with it.

-Stupid story

Who the hell cares about Eddie? That pile of garbage is the worst new ‘friend’ for Mega Man. The joke about the hard hat was cringe worthy. The bad trend was turning Mega Man more into an anime type thing with stories and all. This is not what Mega Man is about!

-The Introduction Stage

Why on Earth is there an introduction stage? This defeats the entire awesomeness of the stage select that began with the original Mega Man. Mega Man games without the immediate stage select is not a Mega Man game.

-Bass and Treble

Bass is actually cool. But these story sequences are not. Stop forcing all this text on me, Capcom! Aside from the introduction and the ending and obtaining weapons, there should be zero text in the game. Tell your story through visuals among the stages. An old writer’s law is true: showing the story works much better than telling it.



-Only four robot masters at the beginning

What the hell!? At first, I thought I got ripped off with only having four Robot Masters in the entire game. I was very annoyed that I couldn’t choose from all eight.

-Mega Man moves extremely slow.

Mega Man is an action game. At least, it used to be. When you play Mega Man 7, the first thing you will notice is how slow Mega Man runs. This just slowed down the game even more.

-Mega Buster can take out almost all Robot Masters

Unlike previous Robot Masters, I had no problem using the mega buster to take almost all of them out.

-The museum stage after the first four robot masters.

Great, now the game is going to shove more story down my throat. I actually really liked how the museum paid homage to the previous Mega Man games and how Guts Man was stolen. But the stage was a joke and the boss was no fun. What is this garbage of this stupid stage?

-The next four robot masters

When the last four set of Robot Masters appear, you will note how they are more difficult than the previous four and that they require the previous four weapons in order to win in them. I felt this was going against the spirit of the series with the stage select (stage select forced the developers to make each stage beatable to nothing but the mega buster). It didn’t feel like four more Robot Masters but miniature Wily stages because of this.

-Turbo Man destroyed this game.

Up until now, the worst Robot Master ever was Turbo Man. His stage was horrible. His weapon was bad. And his design is atrocious. Turbo Man’s stage even pushes Mega Man back to starting it over again in a hideous loop. There are instant kill flames that are like Quick Man’s stage. Unlike Quick Man’s stage, they aren’t fun.

-The ‘shop’ was ridiculous. It was cool upgrading Mega Man, but the entire music, cartoon like nature of the shop was grating. I just farmed bolts using Junk Shield to kill off infinite little birdies in Cloud Man’s stage.



-When Mega Man got a weapon, he would run to Dr. Light (or another character in the Japanese version) and say, “The Freeze Cracker can freeze enemies, right?” where Dr. Light always replies, “Yes, but it can also do *something else*…” It got annoying seeing Mega Man ask that each weapon can do something, “right?” grrr

-Rush Adaptors weren’t good here. The jet pack was nothing more than a double jump (lame). Search Dog where Rush digs something out of the ground was stupid too.

-Wily’s Castle was broken. It used to be that Wily’s Castle forced Mega Man to conserve his weapons stragically since he wouldn’t get refills when you went to the next Wily stage. Not only do all the weapons refill when Mega Man goes to the next stage, they refill when Mega Man loses a life! Even worse, in the middle of Wily’s Castle, Mega Man can take a break and go shopping at Eddie’s store to buy new Energy tanks and other parts.



-The final Wily battle is the most difficult Wily battle of the entire series. It was actually too difficult. It requires around five energy tanks. It was difficult because it was nearly impossible to dodge all those shots. Many people can’t finish the last Wily encounter in Mega Man 7.

Here is what I did enjoy of Mega Man 7. I really liked to see Mega Man walking away from the castle as it burned behind him. I liked how, since Mega Man 2, the stages were actually fun to explore and weren’t just parades of challenges. I liked Slash Man’s weapon. I liked Shade Man’s stage. I did enjoy the bolt system since it was a step back from the collectathon the series was becoming. Mega Man could obtain bolts from drops from enemies. So the more you played, the more bolts you got somewhat like an RPG. I also liked Spring Man’s stage.

I can see why people really like Mega Man 7. At first, I hated it, but it grew on me. The appeal of Mega Man 7 is that the stages are fun to explore. However, I don’t rate Mega Man 7 highly in any way. The Robot Masters were lame. Many of the stages were forgettable. Everything about Turbo Man equaled the Anti-Christ. The bigger problem was that Mega Man just moved too slow. The music was nothing to write home about either.

While Mega Man 4 and 5 are worthwhile for the Mega Man fan to try out, I would include Mega Man 7 in that group as well. Unfortunately, the fun is not consistent and there are some massive errors in there (*cough* Turbo Man *cough*).

Mega Man 8



I cannot understand anyone who actually likes this game. The only way you can enjoy this game was that you were young at the time and grew up with it as it being one of your first Mega Man games. Otherwise, you are just plain crazy.

Another list of things I hated about this game:

-Cinematic cut-scenes

Oh. My. This was atrocious. The cut scenes were like watching the Mega Man cartoon show. Does anyone doubt me labeling the PlayStation 1 and 2 periods as the ‘Cinematic Age’? Even Mega Man got infested with this garbage.



-Voice Acting

All the Robot Masters will talk to you during the battle. The voice acting is so incredibly bad that you just can’t look at these Robot Master as a nemesis. Except for Grenade Man. His voice was awesome.

-Mega Man sounds like a prepubescent girl

This is not Peter Pan! Why does Mega Man sound like a little girl? Horrible! Horrible!



-All the bad habits of Mega Man 7 were retained.

Dialogue scenes (except they are voice acted and have cinematic cut-scenes).
Introductory stage.
Four Robot Masters. The following four Robot Masters feel like mini-Wily stages since they require the weapons of the first four robot masters.
Wily’s Castle is still broken. One’s weapons recharge after beating each segment or dying. One can also shop in the middle of Wily’s stage or even take a break in a Robot Master’s stage.

-First Gay Robot Master

That would be Aqua Man. This was intentionally done, and I have no idea why. I don’t want my Robot Masters to have a sexual preference in any sense. They are robots after all!



-Stages drop Mega Man gameplay

What the hell! Tengu Man’s stage plays like Gradius. Frost Man’s stage plays like Donkey Kong Country 2. Mega Man no longer played like Mega Man.

-Frost Man was worse than Turbo Man!

I thought Turbo Man was the worst thing ever. A friend said, “Wait until you get to Frost Man.” I thought he was joking since nothing could be worse than Turbo Man. Boy, was I wrong. Frost Man’s stage is not the bottom for the series, it is BELOW that. It plays like the race parts of Battletoads. Very frustrating. Very forced. I blame Frost Man alone for destroying Mega Man 9 (until it appeared ten years later).

-Bolts are now collectathons!

Now bolts were located in hard to get places in stages. This sucked as this meant Mega Man was now back to a collect-a-thon.

-Wily’s Castle is nothing more than a collection of non-Mega Man gameplay

I was literally floored when Mega Man 8 turned into a minecart game in Frost Man or a space shooter smhup in Tengu Man. But I was again floored when that is all that Wily’s Castle is. Wily’s Castle used to mean using the weapons you collected to go surpass the obstacles and challenges of the stage. But noooo. In Mega Man 8, Wily’s Castle has the first stage consist of jet bike racing with the second stage consisting of a space shoot-em-up.

-Despite being on CDs, the music really stank!

What the hell, Capcom!



Many people have expressed complaint that the slide and charged megabuster are gone in Mega Man 9. After playing all the Mega Man games, you become thankful because the slide and the megabuster were very much abused. “Slide!” “Slide!” “Jump!” “Jump!” screams Frost Man’s stage.

Is there anything redeemable about Mega Man 8? Well, I liked how you could use the mega buster while having a weapon equipped. I liked how you could use the shoulder buttons to easily go through the weapons. But other than that, everything of this game failed.

Mega Man 4, 5, 6 was a decrease of quality. While the quality went up a little in Mega Man 7 (thanks more to how poor Mega Man 6 was rather than how good Mega Man 7 was), it was Mega Man 7 that began breaking the formula by introducing the introductory stage, only four robot masters at a time, etc. Mega Man 8 literally began abandoning the Mega Man gameplay altogether!

If you want the Mega Man 8 experience, just watch videos on the Internet. Fans of Mega Man do not let fellow fans play Mega Man 8. You’ve been warned.

And for the few of you who actually like Mega Man 8, the only reason you liked it was because you were at the right age at the right time. It is not unlike how 13 year olds enter that ‘period’ in their lives which they think science fiction books are totally awesome (referred to by science fiction writers as the ‘golden age’). When someone sees Mega Man 8 as part of his childhood, of course he is going to like it. I see the same phenomenon with other games such as Battletoads (which isn’t that good).

Onto the Points Guide!

Contents |  Introduction |  Reviews |  Points Guide
0-9 |  10-19 |  20-29  |  30-39 |  40-49 |  50-59 |  60-69  |  70-79  |  80-89 |  90-100
Conclusion