Mega Man Legends

"I still think it was meant for N64, but it works quite well..."

Now HERE's a new turn for the Mega Man series! By completely rewriting the interface(and the story) the Capcom team has come up with a game that not only looks good, but plays well too! FAR too many games have suffered in the transition from 2-d to 3-d, and I'm happy to say that Mega Man is one of the rare exceptions. By adding RPG and strategy elements to the usual shoot-everything-that-moves engine, Capcom has managed to stretch this franchise out pretty well.

Now, I REALLY have to give credit to whoever designed the camera system. WAAAY too many Playstation games have had horrid camera and targeting controls(Tomb Raider, to name one.) But the camera in MML is drum-tight. EVERY button which controls the camera on the Playstation pad will do EXACTLY what you tell it to do. You will know which button looks up, down, around, and through with very little practice. Thus, the Playstation, which isn't able to make the wide-angle sweeps which the N64 can do to death, can easily and effectively support a 3-d shooting game. However, the Playstation CAN put a LOT of graphical detail into their sprites, and thus after overcoming its weakness it can show its strength. You're guaranteed to wince as you see the first robot boss(followed by many, MANY others) looming over you, his drill bit just waiting to shishkebab the Blue Bomber. GREAT work done by the programming and graphical team. While there is a little bit of enemy pop-in on open areas(a problem with these early 3-d games) it's not enough to be especially significant.

Now for the music and/or sound. Most of the good stuff is found in the sound. Mega man's arsenal of busters each make a distinctive explosion when firing and connecting, which pretty much satisfies the ears. However, Capcom made a major mistake: BARELY ANY MUSIC! Oh, there's enough in towns and on the outside, but in the mechanical caves where you spend the bulk of your time ''digging'' for new items, music is almost nonexistent. Maybe the guys were going for a ''Metroid'' feel (but even that game ALWAYS had a cool background beat going on) and I will admit that the caves are a little more intense that way, but sacrificing the Mega Man musical tradition on the altar of graphics is just HARSH! The music that they DO have for the bosses and such isn't very good anyway. 1.5 points are taken off for this travesty.

The other .5 is for excessive cuteness. I swear, that monkey is a direct Chim-Chim clone! (Although I will admit, he is kinda cool in his own way.) And Tron Bonne was UNNEEDED. Sequel material ONLY. Now, fortuantely, the rest of the characters were funny rather than cute(although the ever-present high-pitched voices of the main characters and the paternalistic voices of authority figures still grated.) Voice acting was actually not too bad. Nevertheless, all bowed subordinate to the essential fun of this title. Have you ever wondered what it would REALLY be like to carry on a full-on, futuristic street battle in a REAL town? Where you could hide behind buildings and around corners, shooting your unwary enemies to pieces? The second boss battle is just like that, and just as much fun! The rest of the game plays just as well, with bosses being at just the right challenge level to keep you playing. And the new system where you buy power-ups for your busters and armor for yourself(using zenny, no less...Capcom has a thing for that currency...also used in Breath of Fire) will bring back all those old RPG skillz. You even spend a whole lot of times opening chests! Minigames aren't even needed; I found three pastimes which served just as well!

1. Kick the dogs!

2. Block traffic!

3. Shoot the Servbots(tied with Kick the Dogs for most fun!)

Mega Man Legends is a miracle, a game that had everything going wrong for it gameplay-wise in its conception, that yet managed to solve all of its problems for an extremely enjoyable experience. If you collect Mega Man games(You do...admit it...) this one deserves a place right up there with the classics.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/07/00, Updated 02/07/00