Mega Man

"If people judge a game by its box art, said game would never have spawned a franchise."

Released in 1987, the original Mega Man game for the Nintendo Entertainment System was known for its horrible box art. I mean, seriously, if I was a working father back then and my kid wanted this game for his birthday, I'd have his brain transplanted. It's no secret that the game's box art was one of the most horrible pieces of art ever made. Never mind the fact it had nothing to do with the actual game, but just as its own independent piece, it makes you want to puke.

Okay... so to be honest, when I saw the box art for this game back when I was a kid in 1991, I had wondered if that's how Mega Man started off with... around that time there had been three Mega Man games available with number 4 looming ahead. I was still a relative newcomer to Nintendo games, oblivious to all the wonderful franchises out there... but not oblivious that I didn't know what everything was. I've heard of Mega Man, I've played Kid Icarus and stumbled across one of those weird passwords, I've played through Castlevania 1, 2, and 3. I've touched on these more than enough times back then.

But then I look at this and wonder... "Mega Man had a gun? He wore yellow? I thought his hand was a gun?"

STORY: Anyway, all the stupid childhood memories aside, several months after that rental, my parents bought the game and I got a look at the funny instruction booklet... which had told the story of Dr. Light (then known as Dr. Wright - not Dr. Right) creating seven robots, Dr. Wily reprogramming six of them, and Mega Man being declared defender of the universe. Yeah, that's right. DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE. Don't believe me? Here's some of the story taken from the original NES manual:

"It's MEGA MAN versus the powerful leaders and fighting forces of Monsteropolis -- that strange multi-faceted land of robot-like Humanoids. Brilliant scientist Dr. Wright conceived the construction of fully-operational human-like experimental robots to perform specific everyday duties. Dr. Wright, and his assistant Dr. Wily, encouraged with their very first near human robot -- MEGA MAN -- proceeded to develop six additional Humanoids, all programmed to perform prescribed rituals.

But, with the exception of MEGA MAN, all of Dr.Wright's near-human robot experimentation went awry. Assistant Dr. Wily turned disloyal, re-programming Dr. Wright's Humanoids, now bent on destroying opposition so Dr. Wily could control the world and its resources.

Resisting re-programming, MEGA MAN is chosen the defender of the universe and its inhabitants. MEGA MAN dares to single-handedly penetrate seven separate empires of Monsteropolis, eliminating the leaders and followers of these sovereignties."

Neat-o. Of course, years later, we all know better, but still - that was pretty epic... for 1987. 6/10

GRAPHICS: For the most part, the graphics in the original Mega Man are iconic. Not so much in the sense that you'll be building shrines for them, but apparently iconic enough that we got a new game in 2008 built around that graphic style. In any case, Mega Man has a rather clean, simple, and uncomplicated art form that makes it very pleasing to the eyes. While it isn't a cut above all the other games that came out at the time, it is still outstanding work and a good enough style to be recycled for the rest of the series... while it stuck in 8-bit. 8/10

SOUND: Mega Man's soundtrack is actually pretty good and memorable, with a number of noteworthy tracks that will get stuck in your head for quite some time. Being that music is a main influence of the series, it makes sense that the musical tracks in the game be up to high standards and they succeed on that level. The sound effects are also fairly decent and eventually used in every game afterwards. Nice. 8/10

GAMEPLAY: Mega Man is a fairly simple platform game that gives you the option of choosing the order of six initial stages you wish to progress through. Nothing special now, but back in the day, this type of thing was rare for an action game of this style; only RPG or adventure games would feature this kind of open-endness and flexibility. Not only that, but you get special powers by defeating the bosses of these stages, which you can use against the other bosses to even the odds somewhat. Along the way, you'll find something called a Magnet Beam, which allows you to create platforms you can climb on before they fade away forever... let's just say that after playing with this thing, I was more than happy to get something better like a Rush Jet with limited maneuvering abilities.

For the most part, controls are fairly responsive and Mega Man is fairly easy to control. The only thing that you'll have to be careful is that Mega Man doesn't have much traction. I've noticed that a single tap on the D-Pad will make him move a nice chunk compared to later games. 8/10

CHALLENGE: Most Mega Man games follow a pretty standard formula and as a result of this, they tend to be somewhat easier as games progress. Mega Man 1, for all intents and purposes, gives you the bare minimum of abilities (no slide, no E-Tanks, and whatever else you can think of) and these are more than enough to traverse through the game in a good amount of time. That having been said, Mega Man 1 is considered to be one of the harder games in the series due to the lack of comforts from later games as well as the infamous instant-death spikes that kill you regardless of whether you've been hit by an enemy or not. This makes for precarious situations where one inconvenient hit from a stray projectile or flying foe will send you tumbling onto a bed of spikes with no hope for recovery. Also, some of the bosses tend to be overwhelming at first (with a couple Robot Masters capable of killing you in three shots - finding their weakness weapon allows you to return the favor) but they are beatable once you learn their patterns. Still, Mega Man's a challenging game in the series and chances are you won't be able to beat it in your first shot. 10/10

REPLAY VALUE: While there isn't any real replay value in terms of hidden features and extra game modes, Mega Man does offer players with several undeclared challenges with the Stage Select mode. In fact, most players will find ways to challenge themselves by attempting stages in different orders or limiting their use of special weapons. While it is not truly an expansive experience, you'll get more bang for your buck than you'll ever realize. 8/10

OVERALL: The original Mega Man was considered to be a sleeper hit for the most part. Once people got over the bad box art, they saw a game that was actually pretty good, but hard as nails. Even today among all the other Mega Man titles, it still holds up fairly well and is still a fun game to play, but sadly it's not one of the series' best. Consider it to be more of a prototype of the formula that would eventually be finalized in the game's superior sequel. Mega Man is worth a try if you want to see where it all started. While it is generally difficult and not that refined, it's still a decent title and is only a sample of great things to come out of this franchise. 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/08/09

Game Release: Mega Man (US, December 1987)