In my own words what I think of this retro game from the 80's so without a farther ado let me enlighten you with my review.

For those of you who don’t have the pleasure of knowing it yet, Capcom has recently announced the return of the Mega Man Classic series with the long-awaited Mega Man 9. Coming out on all three Next-Gen systems (via online download) this is classic Mega Man at its best. Capcom is resurrecting the formula for success that it found in the 8-bit iterations of the series, making Mega Man 9 the first truly 8-bit game in the series since 1993 with the NES release of Mega Man 6.

Following the classic formula of platforming, Mega Man 9 features perfectly timed jumps, gut-wrenching challenges and enough “Insta-Death” Spikes to make you hurl a controller through your television, so I thought it only fitting to review the classic series’ NES entries leading up to the release of Mega Man 9, ending with a review for the title itself. So, enough about the new Mega Man for now – let’s get to the Retro Review of: MEGA MAN!

In December 1987, game developer Capcom released a title in both Japan and America simply titled Mega Man for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Famicom. Little did anyone know at the time that this title would generate a wave of sequels and create one of the most famous franchises in video game history. The story for the game was brief and only given in the instruction manual that came with the cartridge. The year was 20XX, and humans and robots lived together in peace. The famous roboticist Dr. Light lived with his two worker robots Rock, and his sister, Roll, and worked in the lab with his assistant Dr. Wily.

Dr. Light had just completed his new line of 6 Robot Masters, each created with a purpose to further aid in the development of mankind, when Dr. Wily stole his Robot Masters, re-programmed them, and sent them around the globe in an effort to take over the planet. Even though Rock was a robot, he had a strong sense of justice, so he had Dr. Light upgrade his design to become a battle robot to defeat Dr. Wily and the 6 Robot Masters and restore peace to the world. After his upgrades, Rock changes his name to Mega Man (In Japan he is known as Rock Man. However, due to the name of a Sony music amplifier with the same name, it had to be changed to Mega Man here in the United States.) and sets off on his quest.

After popping the cart into the NES and powering on, the title “MEGA MAN” is emboldened in the middle of the screen while kind of leaning on its backside Star Wars style. The title screen for Mega Man was the only title in the series not to feature any background music, though this was changed in later re-releases of the original. After pressing Start as prompted to by the title screen, we are dropped right where the story leaves off and the player is brought to a stage select screen featuring a picture of each of the Robot Masters, formed into a circle along with some simple but enjoyable background music.

At the time, the ability to select a level on your own and choose your own path to victory was monumental and was another reason for the game’s major success. After choosing which opponent to try and take on first, the player is given an introduction to the Robot Master they have chosen, featuring a short, menacing music cut, along with a randomly generated point value for defeating the chosen master. After this, Mega Man warps to the center of the screen in a blue blur and game play ensues, leading to the game’s real attraction.

To start things off, the controls in the game are very simple, but incredibly tight, which is a necessity due to the precise timing of jumping and shooting the game requires. The D-pad moves the avatar left, right, up and down, while the A button jumps and the B button fires. The start button is used to bring up your sub-menu, which contains information on the player’s health and weapons, but we’ll get to that later. Mega Man also features a complete pause function with use of the Select button, completely stopping everything in the game, including the music. Due to a glitch that players could take advantage of during game play, the pause feature was removed after the original title. The player’s health bar appears in the upper left hand corner of the screen in the form of a bar with individual lines, each representing a portion of the player’s remaining health for his current life.

Due to the popularity of its existence in games at the time, a score counter was put into the game and stayed at the top of the screen during the duration of game play. The basic weapon was Mega Man’s arm cannon, which would later come to be known as the Mega Buster in Mega Man 4. With Mega Man’s basic weapon the character could have only 3 shots on screen at once, which only helped add to the challenge the player faced throughout the game.

The challenge was also further amplified due to the knock-back a player received from getting hit, immediately followed by a brief period of invincibility in which the player is protected from everything except Insta-Death Spikes, Insta-Death Lava, or falling off the stage, (all?) resulting in the loss of a life. The player begins with 3 lives and full health, and if a stage is beaten the lives are carried over to the next stage selection. Built on solid game play mechanics and an easy learning curve, it’s no wonder the game play was so addictive.

Stage progression in Mega Man is fairly simple and remains the same throughout the series. The player starts on screen on the opposite side of the stage from the main boss. Using Mega Man’s weapons, the player shoots enemy robots and other obstacles along with running and jumping over, through, and under different platforms throughout the stage. The use of these various platforms to get through the stage is where the term platformer comes into play, and mixed with the shooting and other actions throughout the game, Mega Man was one of the first games to be classified as an “action platformer”.

The player ultimately makes his way to the “boss gates,” which were doors used to divide the Robot Master section of the stage from the rest of it. Upon entering the room, the Robot Master drops down to reveal himself, his life bar fills up and the battle begins. The battles with the Robot Masters take place in rooms almost like an arena. Once they begin, the Robot Master uses his special attack in a semi-randomized pattern to try and destroy the player.

Each Robot Master has a varying degree of difficulty, ranging from simple to near impossible, with the use of Mega Man’s stock weapon. When a Robot Master is defeated, Mega Man has the ability to copy and use their special attack, though they each have a limited number of energy (uses?) that must be refilled either by power ups or continuing. It is through this unique aspect that the game play takes a fun twist.

With the ability to gain new weapons and attacks, the player may now find completing certain stages easier than before by using a particular weapon. The other twist that comes with these power ups is that they almost work as a game of ”Rock, Paper, Scissors” with the bosses. That is, each boss is weak to the special attack of one of the other bosses, and by defeating the Robot Masters in a particular order the player will have a much easier time. The powers are used by simply opening the sub-menu (via the Start button) and selecting the weapon of choice.

Aside from the 6 Robot Master weapons there is another tool that Mega Man can use called the Magnet Beam. This tool creates temporary translucent platforms which the player can use to get over some of the tougher parts in the game, such as the giant gap in Ice Man’s stage, and is only truly necessary to get through one section of the game. The Magnet Beam is another nice little addition to the game and helps give the player a little bit of an edge over some of the overwhelming challenges contained within Mega Man.

As good as Mega Man is, there are a few unfortunate drawbacks to it that would otherwise make the game near-perfect. The biggest of these drawbacks is that there are no passwords or save options in the game.

In other words, you must complete the game from start to finish in one play-through or be forced to restart fresh from the beginning every time. This normally wouldn’t be a problem, as with most other games of the time, but given the extraordinary challenge a player faces within the various stages coupled with the length of the game, it would have been a very nice aspect for Capcom to look into. In later iterations of the title, Capcom would include a grid based password system for the player to pick up from where they left off from on different play-throughs.

Another fault is the drop in frame rate when too many enemies are moving on screen at once, but while is this more or less a nuisance of the time on most NES games, it is fortunate that it takes place only in a few places in the game. The final drawback to the game is only for those who care about the scoring system - the fact that the 6 Robot Masters’ point values are a random lottery as to what you will get for clearing them, making any high score attempts rely not on pure skill as they should, but also a bit of luck.

All in all, today Mega Man truly is still one of the greatest platformer titles of all time. The game capitalized on a great system of mechanics, tight controls, awesome sound, and very addicting game play. Along with setting the bar for its future titles, Mega Man also established the incredible challenge that old school gamers love so much. All told, Mega Man still is one of the best titles of all time.

Retro Video Game Rating: 10/10

Very good Review of one of my favorite games! Keep up the good work.

Thank you Eazy_187um_KiLLa for your wonderful feedback makes me feel so wonderful that people like my reviews,art and poetry I will keep up the great work.

LunaRoseAngel : I'm sorry if I came across as abrasive against your reviews. I came across some of your works on other sites, I figured you cut and pasted them onto here. I even checked this one, and in fact, nothing came up. Very good review.

That's okay you don't have to check am not going to lie to you or anyone else I have and always will be quite truthful to everyone on here and the feedback I have gotten from every one thank you so much!

The original post in this thread is a copy and paste of the review from http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=25&id=1642
The origingal author is Wes Meador, TG Game Reviewer.
After investigation it has been found that LunaRoseAngel is NOT Wes Meador, the author of this peice, and as such this is plagerism and shall be closed.