Mega Man

"A good start to a great series"

The Mega Man series has been around for over 15 years now, and the Blue Bomber has millions of fans. Young and old, people just plain love the Mega Man games. The series began in 1987 with the original game. It had horrible box art, but it proved that "Don't judge a book by it's cover" goes for video games, as well as books. Mega Man proved to be an NES giant, and still remains popular today with the recent release of Mega Man Anniversary Collection for GCN and PS2.

Graphics - 7/10
The graphics in Mega Man aren't bright or detailed, but they're good enough. The dull environments toned downed the excitement a bit for me. Most of the stages look all right, and some of them actually look good. The enemies and Robot Masters look average at best, and they are much more detailed in future NES Mega Man games. Mega Man has a very nice looking sprite that put the sprites of other popular characters, like Mario and Link, to shame. Overall, the graphics are about average.

Sound and music - 7/10
The sounds you hear from shooting your weapons or jumping are satisfying. You'll also hear some good sounds from your enemies. The music is so-so. I easily forgot all of the music after I beat the game, while I still have music from Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 4 ringing in my head occasionally. I really liked the Robot Master introduction music that you'll hear when you select a stage. It's a short little jingle, but it's cool and catchy. Like the graphics, sound and music are average.

Story - 7/10
A brilliant scientist named Dr. Light and his assistant, Dr. Wily, have created robots to help the world. The robots are Ice Man, Fire Man, Bomb Man, Guts Man, Cut Man, Elec Man, Roll, and Mega Man, Each of them has special jobs to perform throughout the world. One day, Dr. Wily reprogrammed six of the robots (the first six that I mentioned), and he used them in an attempt to take over the world. Mega Man resisted reprogramming, and he is Dr. Lights last hope to defeat the robots and bring peace to the world. Not a bad story for the NES days.

Control - 8/10
Well, I must point out the major flaw in this game's controls. Mega Man's traction is pretty bad. By that, I mean that it feels like he's slipping, when he walks or runs. It feels likes Mega Man is walking on ice or grease. It's a real pain on Ice Man's level, where Mega Man's traction is even worse. It's good that you can solve the problem with a simple jump, when you need to stop. Shooting in this game is very fun. You hit the B button as fast as you can to shoot. Since this is an NES game, there can only be a maximum of three shots on the screen, which can be a disappointment to those gamers, who love to shoot lots of shots across the screen. Luckily, the shots move through the air quickly. Everything else works fine in the controls, and they are good overall.\

Gameplay - 8/10
Since this is the first Mega Man, let me explain how the formula in a Mega Man game works. As a little blue robot, named Mega Man, you must travel through six different levels. You can do any of the six levels at any time and in any order. This non-linear gameplay is what make the Mega Man games so much fun. Each level has a boss, called a Robot Master. When you defeat a boss, you receive that boss's special weapon. Each boss has a weakness to a certain special weapon, and it's your job to find out witch weapon works best against the bosses. You can also just use your basic weapon, but it's much easier, when you know the boss's weakness. After you defeat the six Robot Masters, you must complete a few more levels, and complete the game.

Most of the levels are creative and fun. Ice Man's level is a living nightmare, however. The second half of it requires you to memories a disappearing block puzzle. It bad enough to memorize, but the blocks are made of ice, and you'll slip constantly, if you're not careful. After that, you have to jump on these moving platforms that shoot from the side. If you get hit, you'll most likely fall to your doom, and be forced to do the disappearing block puzzle again. The beginning of Guts Man's level is pretty bad, too. You have to jump on these small platforms that move on a track. It doesn't sound too bad, right? That's because I didn't mention that there's holes in the track, that make very difficult to time your jump. These hard events make the game frustrating, and take some of the fun away. The other levels are very fun, and make up for those other two.

One of the bad things about Mega Man is the lack of a save feature. All the other games have password save, but this on doesn't. It's a shame. If the game had a save feature, it could've been a longer game. It's sad that this game is over so quickly. The gameplay is easily Mega Man's best feature to boast. It may be difficult for some, but I found the game's challenge to make it enjoyable.

Replay value - 6/10
You can play through each level, after you beat it. There's also a hidden item that can make some challenges a lot easier. Since Mega Man is short, you might want to play it again.

Overall - 8/10
It's a good game, and it let to a lot more great ones. Pick this one up or give it a try in Mega Man Anniversary Collection. It's well worth it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/22/04