Mega Man 64

"An alright game hampered by the fact that it's 3 years old."

One of Capcom's most famous franchises is finally being released for the Nintendo 64. But, is it a bit late with the system on it's final year? Possibly, considering that a ton of other people played this game 3 years ago, but new gamers could find something to like.

Story: This one takes a different approach to the Mega Man series than the classic side-scrollers. In this game, the world is mostly flooded. People known as diggers go to the small patches of land, looking for treasure. There's a legend of a great treasure known as the ''Mother Lode'', but no one has found it yet. It's the same as Mega Man Legends.

Graphics: 4/10
The best I can say is that they are colorful. The draw distance is crap, meaning fog is everywhere you look, even on the inside of buildings! What's up with that? The characters have a nice Anime flavor to them, though, and they're mouths move when they speak, every so out of sync. The characters are extremely blocky, but they show a good amount of animation to them. The textures in the dungeon are repetitive, and there's no ceiling either.

Sound: 7/10
At least this area is better. The music isn't so bad, it gets catchy after a while, but becomes repetitive. There's not much to sound effects other than 'beep' 'boop' 'swoosh' and some others. What makes me give it a seven is the considerable amount of speech in the game. There is a ton, but it's usually only heard in cutscenes. For some reason, though, Roll likes to talk when you're in the middle of a dungeon for some odd reason. At least the game has a sense of humor when they speak.

Control: 7/10
It seems messed up when you compare it to other N64 action and adventure titles. You wouldn't really want to side-step using the Z and R buttons, would you? The game controls better with the Plus Pad than the Analogue Stick. At least some instinct is still there, jumping with A and shooting with B.

Gameplay: 7/10
It's a decent action/adventure title, but it ends up being a little too short. There's a lot of action to this game, but it's hampered by it's control scheme. Then you also have Zelda: Majora's Mask, which is an excellent action/adventure title, and Mega Man 64 just can't compare to a title like that. I did enjoy the large amount of shooting, though.

Overall: 7/10
While not a great game, it still worth a rental, but I wouldn't recommend buying it unless you're a true junkie of the series. If you own or have beaten Mega Man Legends for the PlayStation, don't even bother.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/16/01, Updated 09/16/01