Retro Review: Mega Man

Player(s): 1
Platforms: NES, Wii, Wii U, 3DS, Android

Back before the run and gun platformer was an accepted genre, Capcom decided to experiment with a new idea: Mega Man. This game’s humble beginnings are on the NES a little over 3 decades ago. With the relatively recent announcement that we’d be getting a new game in the franchise after many years of waiting, I decided to take a flash back to the start of it all.

The 6 Robot Masters.

Mega Man was released during a simpler time, when games strove for simplicity over complexity, thus allowing for a less guided experience to the standard game today, where the player may feel like their hand is being held. The goal of the game was simple: move from left to right while jumping and shooting in order to overcome the enemy at the end of the stage. Along the way, various obstacles and enemies would appear in order to spice things up and add challenge. The formula is nothing new in the world of modern gaming, especially considering the franchise has over 30 entries. The biggest twist at the time was Mega Man’s ability to copy the weapons of the main bosses, giving you more ways to approach combat and sometimes level progression as well. Most importantly, each boss has a weakness, allowing for some experimentation in finding the most efficient way to win.

Taking a swim through Ice Man's stage.

After all that time, it’s unfortunate that the original Mega Man doesn’t stand the test of time compared to some of the other games in the series. While the level designs are well-done and the boss battles contain plenty of challenge and variety, it’s some of the other base factors of the game that are rough around the edges, to a major fault.

Bomb Man is relatively simple, but potentially deadly.

The original game had a feature where the character would slide a bit before coming to a stop, something that a few of the later games kept before finally ditching altogether. The biggest problem with this is that it’s exaggerated to the point of being unintuitive and frustrating. I’ve played this game many times, on every platform and collection that’s been released in the US except for the non-portable versions of Legacy Collection. I’ve beaten it on all of these platforms and collections, and to this day I find myself dying due to a ridiculous slide off an edge or sliding into an enemy when by all rights, my character should have stopped moving. Thankfully, the actual responsiveness of the game is top-notch, allowing for precise play on almost every version I’ve played (the most noticeable input lag for me was in the Anniversary Collection release on GCN, PS2 and Xbox).

Fire Man being an absolute pain.

The other big qualm I have with Mega Man is the slowdown. When more and more starts to happen on the screen, there is a significant amount of slowdown in the game, that is due in no small part to Capcom trying their best to make everything work right on their first try on the NES with this game. This slowdown can often be unexpected and lead to deaths or backwards progress.

Everything is so vibrant.

Besides these issues, the game is fantastic. As mentioned, the level and enemy designs are great. The art is very simple but gets the point across in a very colorful and attractive way. The music is some of the catchiest you’ll hear from the 8-bit era. This was also the only game in the series to feature a score system. Admittedly, with the way that enemies can infinitely spawn by walking back and forth, it is easily exploited if you are patient, making a high score somewhat irrelevant and nullifying the existence of the system.

Watch your step!

Mega Man is a solid game on paper, but due to some technical hitches it is difficult to play now for anybody but purists. The rest of the series offers much better experiences, and unless you’re looking to play every single Mega Man game, you can safely skip this one without much regret. Clocking in at about a couple hours or so, the game is designed to be beaten in one sitting, though the sometimes-unforgiving difficulty can extend that time depending on your skill. Most notably, the game can sometimes be overly reliant on memorizing patterns rather than naturally learning them.

One of the most deadly enemies in the game.

Mega Man is most easily accessed via the Mega Man Legacy Collection available on PS4, Xbox One, PC, 3DS and most recently, Nintendo Switch. As I journey through the collection on the Switch, I will continue taking a look at each game in the series. Stay tuned!

- Teepu

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Graphics: A-
Sound: A+
Gameplay: C-
Value: B+

OVERALL: C+

Pros:
+ Fantastic level design keeps you on your toes throughout.
+ Copying the boss’ weapons is extremely satisfying.
+ The sound design is amazing.

Cons:
- Slowdown can make a precision game like this tough to play at times.
- Character sliding can lead to many frustrating deaths.
- The game’s enemy spawning system makes the enticing scoring system utterly pointless.

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