Mega Man 8 Anniversary Edition

"Mega Man comes to Play Station in a short adventure."

Mega Man 8 is the first and so far the only Mega Man to come to PS at least in the US. The game is quite fun and has a pretty decent plot and good music...well time to break down the scores.

Story 7- Very nice plot over all and the story lines scenes added more often are a very nice touch for the series. Characters seem much more involved even with out having a lot of text. Then again I've never considered text the only way to have a story.

Graphics 9- Everything is crystal clear. The scenery fits the mood of every stage. Mega Man looks better than ever and the detail on the other characters has improved drastically. The game also sports nicely done anime cut scenes which fit very well with the style of graphics in the game instead of contradicting them.

Music 8- Mega Man 8 has several well done tunes. The boss music is one of the better ones if you ask me. Stage music fits very well. However the game doesn't seem to have that EPIC tune and thus I can not give it a higher score than 8.

Game play 8- Once again the game play is traditional and fun. The innovations are not massive, but there is more interaction from other characters in the Mega Man series.
And not only that unless you can find enough of bolts for buying parts you'll have to choose between them giving some choice and replay to Mega Man 8. Even if there are enough bolts to get everything you still need to decide what to get first.

Fun Factor 9- Stages are quite fun to go through and with interactive weapons...playing around in a stage can be a good experience. The bosses now talk and have nice sayings which I will not say right now for the spoiler rule.

Replay Value 5- With out much innovation and many games to play this is a game you will play for 5 days not play for a week or 2 then play for 3 days then not play for a week. You get the idea.

Challeng Medium- Stages hard enough at first to give trouble, but short enough to make you go ''Stupid unfair, oh I am at the boss?'' This is especially true of the later stages in the game.

Final Score 9- Over all this game is not ground breaking, but still keeps with tradition and adds some innovation. Mega Man has always been about not ruining the feel of the series, but adding a few new things and Mega Man 8 succeeds extremely well at this.

To Rent or buy: Definitely buy. This game is only $20 now and it is worth every penny. This is definitely one of the better series.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/17/01, Updated 03/17/01