Mega Man Soccer

"The great unfinished game"

Who would have thought that there would ever be a Mega Man soccer game?At first glance a person would think that this game is just a way for Capcom to use the Mega Man name for some fast money.In a way,that's half true.

The story starts out with Mega Man, Dr. Light, and Roll watching a soccer game on TV when suddenly robots come onto the field to play.Light recognizes the robots as Wily's and enhances Mega Man so he can give them a good game.

Okay, so the story itself is pretty bad........

Graphics 9/10
The graphics are well suited for this game.Capcom really did good detail for not only the fields,but the area around the fields as well.The best touch,graphic wise, in the game to me is when the character that has made a goal does a victory dance.Another nice detail is what happens to a character when he gets hit by a special move (he'll get cut,frozen,and so forth depending on what he was hit by).

Sound 9/10
This game's sound is well suited for it,with nice effects for the different actions and background music that goes with the flow of the game.

Control 7/10
While the controls are okay once a person gets used to them,it has a big learning curve.Deffenatly a game of skill where practice is needed to make full use of the button lay out.

Gameplay 10/10
This is where the game shined for me.The game works pretty well with one person controlling so many characters more or less at once.There are a variety of characters from different Mega Man games in Mega Man Soccer (even Enker from one of the GameBoy games) to choose from,each with his own special move and statistics.I liked getting new players onto my team by beating other teams in Capcom Championship mode (which follows the Mega Man formula of 'choose who you fight in what order'),and had just as much fun playing against other people.I believe the difficulty level against the computer is just right for this game.

The main reason I did not give this game a higher score is because I get the feeling this game was rushed to sale before it was finished.There are more then a few grammar errors in the game (heck,the name on the cartridge and the name on the title screen are even different!),and do not even get me started on the so called ''ending'' for the Capcom Championship mode.Still this game is pretty fun where the soccer action itself is concerned.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/20/01, Updated 08/20/01