Mega Man

"This is what classic game is all about"

Ah, Mega Man. Who's ever played a video game in their life that doesn't know who he is? He's produced nearly as many sequels and spin offs as Mario, was a main character on Captain N, and for two seasons had his very own Saturday morning cartoon (which wasn' very good, but I digress) and appeared in the Capcom fighting games with sister Roll. So here I am to talk about the little Nintendo game that started it all. And what a game it was. So much that it was never, ever changed.

Mega Man is the creation of Dr. Wright (in all other games, Dr. Light) and his partner Dr. Wily. They also built six other robots (not including Roll, but she doesn't figure into any of the early games very much) with the function of performing special feats for the good of mankind (Cut Man was a robot lumberjack, Guts Man was a one-man wrecking crew, Ice Man could do anything a human could do but wasn't affected by severe cold, that kind of thing). Until, that is, Dr. Wily reprogrammed the other six robots into helping him take over the world. Dr. Wright rebuilt Mega Man, the only robot left, into a fighting machine who could adapt to what he fought, and thus learn his opponents' special abilities. And so the ''blue bomber'' set out into ''Monsteropolis'' to destroy the evil robots and capture Dr. Wily.

And so began the kick off of one of the most famous franchises in gaming history. At the time, the idea of being able to beat a boss and then copy his powers was an incredibly innovative idea, and stayed so for a long, long time, to the point of ludicrousness, but I'll get into that when I review the later games (and already sort of have). Mega Man has been an incredibly long-lived series.

The name of the game about being able to copy weapons from the evil robots (or Robot Masters if we're going to use the actual terminology) is trying to figure out what guy's weapon would work best on which other guy. Ice Man's powers would probably work pretty well on Fire Man, for example. Most of the time, though, it's pretty much up to trial and error or reading a help guide. But since there's a lot of those around these days, there isn't really anything complain about in this regard.

Gameplay-7/10
So anyway you're Mega Man, the robotic superhero, penetrating enemy territory. You start off with a regular gun that's okay against most enemies, but the tougher ones, and especially Robot Masters, will hardly be scratched by it.

So you need to get some extra weapons and fast. The problem is that even when Mega Man has acquired a new super-power, the number of times he can use it is limited. It can be reenergized by picking up blue energy capsules, but it's still important to learn to use them only as much as you absolutely need. Otherwise they won't be there by the time you really need to use the Thunder Beam or Cut Blade.

There are no fancy-schmancy vehicles like in other Mega Man games, no robotic pets with special powers, and he doesn't have any moves besides the basic run, jump and shoot kind of deal that all platform games heroes have at their disposal. The set up is simpler than its sequels, but like I'm always saying, sometimes simplicity is good. You're unlikely to beat this game in one sitting, so there's a password feature, which also lets you explore the different levels and experiment after you get a new weapon.

I must comment on the fact that the manual lies about one thing. Mega Man does not, as the manual says, crouch when you push the down button. Back in its early days NES manuals weren't always accurate, but fortunately that got better as the system lived longer.

Graphics-8/10
For an early NES game they were nothing to complain about, although at Capcom they didn't ever bother to change them much despite five sequels. Each Robot Master has a distinctive look, as does each lesser enemy robot who tries to stop you from making it to his boss. Traps are easily identifiable as well, as are the power-ups you need to sustain Mega Man and juice his weapons back up, as well as to give you extra lives. None of the bosses are that threatening, even the big yellow cyclops that guards Dr. Wily's castle.

Sound-7/10
Nothing I'd burn onto a CD, but decent enough background music and sound effects for such an early game for the Nintendo. Semi-lively and create a unique feel for each different level.

Replay value-4/10
Eh...other people would probably go on and on about how you can play this game over and over and play the levels in a different order to use different special weapons against different Robot Masters, which you certainly can, but after I beat the game for the first time I didn't have the urge to do that. I had saved the world from Dr. Wily and his robots once, and he could just wait for me to feel like doing it again. Probably in a whole other game.

I don't know, but I just don't have that good a time beating one guy, then having to play seven (just five in the case of this time) other entire levels and fighting as many bosses to find the one guy my new weapon works the best against. Mega Man is still a good game, but I don't experiment, I just read a help file and go through it all in one shot without experimenting. So low replay value score for Mega Man. Sorry.

Overall-8/10
If I had to be stuck on a desert island and could only bring five Nintendo games to play while I was waiting to be rescued, I would seriously consider the original Mega Man. It's got that old-time charm of old NES games. It doesn't bother itself too much with frills. All in all a solid game from Capcom, which gave rise to a series of sadly steadily more tedious sequels.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/07/04, Updated 03/11/04