Mega Man 7

"What have they done to you Mega Man!?"

First thing I will say. Get Mega Man X, X2 or X3 if you could only get one of these 4 games. Trust me, the X series is better by miles. Mega Man 7 isn't as good. Still, it is a fairly decent game, mind you. It continues after Mega Man 6, introducing some characters we have never heard of before, such as that big shop robot guy, and Bass and his dog among others. Remember, Roll was at the start of Mega Man 4 (or it might of been 5 or maybe even 3). The city is being attacked, by 4 robots. You must go through a level and defeat them, simple.

This is the concept in ALL Mega man games (as in, on the NES) apart from one thing. After the introduction level, you see 4 ugly robot faces, the bosses. Each one has a different theme to them (including ANOTHER boss with claws!) and different themed levels too. You must choose which one to fight, then go through the level. The levels are designed pretty well, I mean, the zombie level! There hasn't been anything like that in Mega Man ever. Other levels are pretty cool too, and well done. After defeating the 4, 4 more come, which was bound to happen. This just doesn't work well, and doesn't give people the freedom from the other Mega Man games. Defeat them and you will then go to Dr. Wilys castle, do 4 more levels and end of game. So there are only 12 levels, and not 16. But hey, at least all of them are good!

Some bosses are good, and most are bad. If it isn't similar to a past boss, its usually boring, with the same technique needed to defeat it. Avoid its simple to avoid attacks, charge up weapon, blast, repeat. This does get a bit boring, especially at the end where you have to fight them all again! Still, some bosses are good, and some are even hard (last boss especially). But the over all difficulty of bosses isn't too high. Defeating a boss, you can get their weapon. Mega Man returns to his creator, Dr Light, and asks him if what he thinks the weapon does is correct. Dr Light adds some more information, then MEGA MAN VII pops up onto the screen with a picture of Mega Man, telling you what weapon you got. It takes itself just a bit too seriously. The weapons are pretty good though, they can destroy stuff, mostly robots. You can also use them to defeat the other bosses, each boss is weak to a certain weapon, so if you have it, you can defeat them a lot more easier then before.

The game is fairly simple to play with its controls. They are exactly the same as Mega Man X, but you can't jump all walls OR dash, instead you can only slide, by pressing down and jump. Mega Man can do little things, jump, shoot, slide, and thats about it. These all must be used to get past the levels which hold many puzzles and the sort. They aren't exactly proper puzzles, but you must be pretty fast to get past some parts. Mega Man is a classic side scrolling shooter, and platformer. There are lots of enemies to kill, and they're trying to kill you too. The enemies range from the bright, to the dark, from staying still and shooting, from jumping around the place, all are pretty well designed. Mega Man has always had spikes in it. Touch them, and thats it, your dead. There are lots of pits with that in, and then there are also the parts where there are platforms going along a certain path, and at certain parts, they will spin around, so you can't stand on them. These are just some examples of the level design.

Another new thing, is the shop. Press select at the level select screen, and you can buy all the E and W tanks and such other stuff you need. This is a pretty cool system, but I never had a need to use it. You get bolts in the levels which are the currency for the shop (in later Mega Man games it became Capcoms own Zenny currency). Still, if you can be bothered to go there, you can now buy items. Very handy.

The graphics are good. They aren't as good as the X series though, they have that more cartoon look to them, bright colours everywhere sort of thing. This makes them not look as good. The characters and enemies are detailed enough, and the backgrounds are pretty good too. The animation is OK (the climbing animation just looks strange though). The music is all cheerful as well. I just HATE the boss music, ugh, its so terrible. But the rest is decent enough.

PROS:

The levels are always good.
The enemies are well designed.
The graphics are good.

CONS:

Perhaps a bit easy.
Not all bosses are fun.
Some music is bad.
The shop isn't actually THAT good.

THE RATINGS:

Graphics: 8.8/10
Audio: 7.7/10
Story: 6.9/10
Game Play: 8.0/10
Life Span: 6.0/10
Difficulty: 7.0/10
Overall: 7.3/10

My Two Pence

Overall Mega Man 7 is a good game, but it can get a bit boring on the weaker levels and the, well, boring bosses. Still, most of the levels are good fun, and the levels are designed well. I would recommend this if you just can't get enough of Mega Man X, X2 and X3, although its not the exactly the same. Still, its a decent attempt but X is more worthy of your attention.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/11/06