Mega Man 7

"Spotted... Hyena... HYENA!"

Megaman 7 is yet another continuation of the classic Megaman series from the NES. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Megaman X series, which has a separate storyline and style (to illustrate their separate-ness, note that Megaman X doesn't use the name Megaman outside the title and intro screen). Anyways, Megaman 7 continues the story of the original series, and familiar characters make their appearances.

Graphics (six point five out of ten)

While I can't say the graphics are by any means bad, and I have to admit they are rather detailed, I really don't like them. They lighting in general is WAY too bright, and the character design has an irritating cartoonish over-exaggeration. This is especially obvious because of the Megaman X series on the same console; the X games have a darker, more intense and realistic look. After seeing that, Megaman 7 looks rather stupid. However, I must say that the animation is smooth and there is very little slow-down.

Sound (seven point five out of ten)

The sound effects in Megaman 7 are nothing to be excited over. The most commonly heard sound, that being the sound of Megaman's arm cannon, is simply awful. It sounds nothing like any sort of weapon. The other sounds are standard mechanical clanks and clunks.

The music is a variety of decent, upbeat tunes and awful tunes that make you want to bite your speakers and crush them in your teeth. Most of the tolerable music themes aren't really great. They lack the techno, high-intensity quality of Megaman X (yes, I know I'm comparing the two games a lot). Other tunes are way too cheerful (in a bad way); for example, Spring Man's theme gets irritating from the moment you hear it. It's the kind of tune that makes you want to shield your ears with your paws. If you don't believe me, download the SPC soundtrack and hear for yourself. There are some exceptions; a select few of the music themes are awesome to listen to. However, there aren't nearly enough.

Controls (nine out of ten)

Like other games in the series, Megaman 7 has pretty sharp control. There is no delay in moving or stopping, and the button configuration makes sense. However, the SNES pad is less hyena-friendly than the NES pad; the buttons are too close together, and mashing too many buttons with one paw can be a problem; however, there are only two buttons on the front (not counting start and select), so this isn't much of an issue. There are two shoulder buttons used to switch weapons, but it's not only hard to paw these but they're also quite useless. It's much easier to hit start and go to the menu to switch weapons, and you can't be shot when using the menu. I do have a complaint about the menu; it's hard to access certain items. However, this is a relatively small issue.

Gameplay (eight out of ten)

Overall, Megaman 7's actual gameplay is quite good. Underneath a few very annoying aspects there is a pretty solid game. Megaman 7 has more depth than most other games in its series. There are many, many items to collect, including the Rush power suit (in which canine-like robot Rush becomes a power suit), the Rush Jet (in which Rush becomes a jet), weapon and E tanks (which refill weapon ammo and energy respectively), the Proto Shield (Protoman's shield) and like usual, eight different weapons stolen from bosses. Unfortunately, some of the weapons are either not very useful or rip-offs of other games' weapons. Freeze Man's weapon is just an aimable version of the Shotgun Ice from Megaman X, Cloud Man's thunder shot seems an awful lot like Spark Mandrill's from Megaman X (again), Junk Man's shield is extremely similar to every other shield in the Megaman series and some weapons like Burst Man's Danger Wrap are just useless. Also, there are some really cheap obstacles like instant-kill spikes that are positioned in a way that makes them very hard to avoid. However, the game overall is a decent one and if you like Megaman, you should try it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/22/03, Updated 03/22/03