Mega Man
Hard to believe this one, but that's supposed to be Mega Man.
Hideous, really. The box art, thankfully, was the worst of it. Mega Man, clad in his legendary blue and teal armor, sprang to life on our screens for the first time in December of 1987, a time when the highest quality gaming on the NES consisted of Link, Mario, and a handful of other heroes. Capcom’s forray into the world of console gaming took off with this iconic champion of justice, battling Dr. Wily time and time again across nine (soon to be ten) installments starting with this game.
Mega Man, formerly a peaceful robot named Rock, was tasked with the elimination of Dr. Light’s six robots stolen by Dr. Wily, Light’s former assistant. Mega Man had to travel across six stages to reach these construction robots, faced with challenge after challenge. Once he’d beaten the 6, he then had to assault Dr. Wily’s fortress of evil, battle a new set of foes and take on the doctor in a final showdown.
As for the content of the game, the highest quality 8-bit graphics sprang to life through the NES. Compared to modern graphics, they’re terrible, but at the time, they were phenomenal. Mega Man moved fluidly as he walked, nothing was inanimate and clunky. Even the basest of foes had numerous sprites for movement and attack. Capcom took gaming to a new level with this title.
As for the difficulty, my God…. Prepare yourself for hours of going through areas over and over. Mega Man himself was a tough bugger, with a plentiful lifeline of health and health pickups to keep him going. Touch a row of spikes or fall down a bottomless pit (are these things even bottomless or just spike filled?) and say good bye to one of your spare lives. The most sinister of all the obstacles in this series are seen in the earliest stages of the game. Dodging dropping platforms and timing jumps across the most hated of puzzles, disappearing blocks. Future installments of the series would keep this trap, but none so much as made the game more fustrating as here. Additionally, Dr. Wily’s fortress itself was impassible unless you made sure to collect a special powerup in one stage, somethign that fustrated most gamers beyond compare. Future installments of the series would make it easier to resume the fight for justice with a password system, making it possible to return to your last beaten boss or the start of Dr. Wily’s fortress at a later time. The original, however, did not contain this, making players start anew each time. This only added to the difficulty of the game.
As for questionable content, there really is none to speak of, unless you count the dreaded sound of Mega Man’s “Explosion” when he perishes from lack of spare energy, spike contact or falling down a bottomless pit. Well, then again, even the bosses have the same result. But as for any real objectionable content, there was none to speak of. The game itself was released when Nintendo was aiming for all audiences, cartoon violence is all that existed in this game.
Overall, even though this game itself was the most fustrating and time consuming of the series, one cannot overlook it. It brought the Blue Bomber to life and gave gamers a series they could never forget.
Rating:
Difficulty: 2/5 – Despite the ongoing fustration and difficult to time sections of jumping puzzles, there was a saving grace that made it a little easier. Pausing (a feature removed in Mega Man 2 and onwards) enabled players to stall the game and add further damage in a single attack.
Graphics: 5/5 – At the time, Mega Man had the most fluid motions of any 8-Bit character in any game. The series would only improve upon this in later installments.
Gameplay: 3.5/5 – A harder category to score for myself, because at this time, my own grasp of controlling the game is far more advanced, and I can certainly time attacks far easier now. However, the gameplay itself is simplistic, with some fair challenges to keep the player guessing.
Replayability: 3.5/5 – The game itself, despite the challenge, is easy to go back and just keep playing once Wily is beaten. Nothing is the same in each run, though many foes appear in the same place, most will attack differently each time.
Overall: 3.5/5 – A welcome addition to most gamer’s libraries, and a must have for any MegaMan Enthusiast.
