Mega Man, the blue bomber, Jump and Shoot man, an icon that has gone through many names, many genres, and an insane amount of games (See here for why: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mega_Man_video_games ). If I was to review all of them in a row, I'd be here for a few years reviewing Mega Man games. You don't want that do you? I know I don't want to be doing that. So, let's do them in bursts. Such as now, where I'll be looking at the first four Mega Man games that came out on the NES, cause those versions are the ones people actually care about and the version ported to oblivion (some more than others). Starting with Mega Man 1. Welcome to 200x kids.
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| Yes, this did need both Bad Box Art Mega Men. One worse than the other. |
Starting with the story, and the joys of the NES is that the story doesn't exist in the actual games. According to just the game, you have to beat six robots as some blue robot maybe called Mega Man (people still think Link is Zelda ok, you can never be sure in this era based on the game cartridge and contents of it alone) and then some scientist person. Truly, the most engaging of stories, and one of the greatest this medium has produced. The actual story though? Dr. Wily has reprogramed six Robot Masters, a form of robots in 200x that assist the day to day lives of the human population. In order to stop this, a scientist by the name of Dr. Light converts one of his robot assistants (and pseudo son) Rock into a combat robot going by the name of Mega Man. Still really basic, but at least it adds a bit of context to Jump and Shoot Man's actions.
Why do I keep calling him Jump and Shoot Man? Because that is basically the game. You move from left to right, you jump, and you shoot. That is it. You get special weapons every time you beat a boss and even some powers that help you navigate platforming challenges (I'm looking at you disappearing blocks!). One thing of note for the game though is that like many NES games at the time, the game's difficulty comes from unfair aspects of the game, this was off the bat of arcades after all. Nothing is impossible in the game as Mega Man is solid to control (A bit too heavy for my personal tastes, but the levels are (overall) designed around it so its not a problem for me), but the odd enemy placement (and frequent enemy respawns), frustrating to no end platforming challenges (like Guts Man's rails, where if the platform opens up underneath you, you fall like a Rock [Man]) and knock back will come off as unfair for players unfamilar with game design of the time. I did have several "how the hell was I supposed to avoid that!" moments when playing the game to review, but there is a satisfying challenge in it that makes you feel rewarded for clearing it. Is it "The Dark Souls of Mega Man games"? No, stop comparing every hard game to Dark Souls! It should be noted that this game doesn't have a save feature (no you don't have to pay another $10 for it). You have to rely on passwords in this game. Remember kids, back then, battery saves were a luxury. And don't cop out with Save states!
In terms of visuals and sound design, these games aren't going to improve a lot over the month. That being said though, the sprites are really well done, and the music is extremely catchy. Capcom was known for some of the best video game soundtracks in the NES Library outside of Nintendo's first-party games, and even then it's debatable who did it better. Personal favorites of mine from the soundtrack are Cutman's stage, Gutsman's Stage, Elecman's Stage and Dr. Wily Stage 2's theme (pretty sure those are the common answers but in my case, I don't care if they are).
Is the game worth playing? That depends on why you'd want to. It's an iconic game in gaming history, and it deserves to be played. But mechanically, it hasn't aged well due to the game design ideas in its time, and as such younger players who aren't used to that style of game design will probably struggle. Should that stop you? No, but it is something worth bringing up. To give a modern day comparison (mostly because it was inspired by these games), think Shovel Knight with a gun and weighing a lot more than him. It was still a fun experience for me, and one I can now say is off my bucket list. Up next in the marathon is Mega Man 2, up next on the Toybox is Age of Extinction Grimlock, and if you want to see the most recent review on the Toybox, you can find it here: https://mediaholicstoybox.blogspot.com.au/2018/03/transformers-power-of-primes-voyager.html
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