Mega Man 7

"This game is good, but not the best in Megaman series"

As you all should know, Megaman 7 is the first game of original series for Super Nintendo and it was released in 1995, exactly two years after Megaman 6 for Nintendo. The story is the same of every game: Dr. Wily escapes from jail and tries to dominate the world with eight new evil robots, but Megaman is going to stop 'em for the seventh time. However, there's a new robot called Bass (or Forte, that I like most), which Megaman doesn't know if he's an ally or an enemy (but you will find out later in the game).

Ok, let's describe the game itself now. Although Megaman 7 is the sequel of Nintendo series, it has lots of features that were ''stoled'' from Game Boy and X games. For example, there is an intro stage, just like in Megaman X and X2. The boss selection type comes from Game Boy games, you can only choose between the first four bosses, then you have an intermediary stage, and later you can go to the latter four stages. Other feature taken from Game Boy is the store, where you can change the bolts you get on the stages for things that will make Mega's life easier, such as extra lives, Energy Tanks, Weapon Tanks, Beats (a bird that saves you when you're falling in a hole), and more powerful items, such as a powerful and expensive homing punch, and Rush upgrades (but you can find them on the stages). Obviously, after destroying the eight bosses, there are four Wily stages where you will encounter many hard bosses and you will find Forte again.

This game's controls are excellent, just like in the old Nintendo games. Like in Megaman X, you can browse through your weapons using L and R buttons. Megaman can also slide to pass beneath enemy jumps and to make your way through low ceilings, just press Down+B. Megaman 7 weapons are very interesting, and most of them are used for other things besides destroying evil robots (Try to use Scorch Wheel in the trees from Slashman's stage and you'll see what I am talking about).

The graphics are very nice, the backgrounds are really well made, like Freezeman's and Shademan's stages , the characters have some ''anime look'', especially in the animations beetween stages (like when Megaman goes to Dr. Light's lab after beating a boss). Curiosity: The bosses from Megaman 7 were all created by Japanese players that submitted their bosses to Capcom, and the company chose eight of them and put them in the game.

The music honors the quality of Megaman games. All songs are very cool, and they ''fit'' well in their respective stages. I loved all songs from this game, but my favorites are the Intro stage, Shademan, Freezeman, Burstman and the Boss fight song, which I think is the second better ''boss battle song'' from the series (I think the best is the one from Megaman 1!). The sound effects are also ok, and some weapon sounds like if they were real. However, I think there is something wrong with Mega's jump sound. Don't you think so?

After two pieces of cake like Megaman X and X2, you'll find a harder one. Here Ken and Ryu won't help you (Hadouken in X, Shoryuken in X2) and you won't have the same ease to beat the bosses, they require some special strategies AND the special weapon in order to kill them (one Energy Tank may be necessary). The main difficulty are Wily stages (and bosses), that are much harder than regular ones.

I think this game is very cool, but there are many Megaman games that are better than Megaman 7, like Megaman 3 and X (My favorite games from each series). However, this game worth the money you pay for it. It's different from other Super Nintendo Megamans and any Megaman fan should have it in his/hers game library.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/25/00, Updated 11/25/00