Mega Man 8 Review by: Popful - 8/10
Mega Man 8Graphics: The sprites are all very well animated, and the stages are full of fun details. From the various toys littering Clown Man's stage, to Frost Man's ice sculptures of Mega Man that he smashes just before he fights you, to Tengu Man's oriental arena amidst the clouds. The enemies are a mixed bag, they're either cleverly designed, or recycled from previous games. The anime intro's also fun to watch, and looks like something out of an OVA, with plenty of cameos of bosses from previous games, such as Guts Man, Engine Man, Pharaoh Man, and Dark Man. The other animated cutscenes are nice, too.
Sound: The music isn't anything spectacular, but it fits the stages well enough, most of the sound effects also work rather well, Mega Man's buster having a good majority of them. Unfortunately, however, the voices are often terrible, examples being Mega Man's high-pitched voice sounds oddly girlish, Grenade Man's voice is too over-the-top to be taken seriously, Clown Man's voice could easily be done by pinching your nose, and Frost Man sounds like he has a cold (oddly appropriate). This extends to said intro, as well (you must stop Doctor Wahwee!).
Addictiveness: While this game warrants an occasional replay, you aren't likely to find anything new on your next go. Collecting bolts can be pretty fun, but not enough to count as replay value. Maybe they could have bundled a mini-game with it?
Story: The story is what you'd expect from a Mega Man game. Two mysterious beings fight it out in space, and fall to Earth, one lands near Dr. Light's lab and is rescued by him and Mega Man, while the other is found by, guess who, Dr. Wily (Dr. Wahwee!). For the most part, there's nothing new or surprising here, but that's not a big deal, since it's mostly an excuse to put neat cutscenes in the game. Since when were Mega Man games about telling a good story, anyway?
Depth: As always, experimenting with new weapons is a fun thing, and buying new abilities with bolts promotes finding your own playstyle. Unfortunately, this is one of the more linear titles, so experimenting with the order of each stage isn't quite as much fun as it usually is, since you can only access 4 of the 8 boss stages at a given time, a lot like the SNES title Mega Man and Bass, minus the branching paths that made that game interesting.
Difficulty: This is one of the easier titles in the series, though it thankfully still poses a fun challenge. There is plenty of variety in the levels themselves, Tengu Man's stage has SHMUP segments, Frost Man has a snowboarding scene, Clown Man has a various little gimmicks in his stage such as O and X boxes that will do different things depending on which you're standing on when the bell rings.
Overall, I'd recommend this game to fans of this series, as well as those who are merely curious about it. It's a fun 32-bit update to a mostly 8-bit series.
Graphics
10 Sound
7 Addictive
7 Depth
6 Story
3 Difficulty
7