The Blue Bomber Is Back!
I love the Mega Man-games and I have played them to bits with bloody thumbs during the years. Everything is still present in my memory, which is something that feels very present as I jump and sprint between the invisible blocks on Ice Mans level with ease or when I'm nimbly navigating between the laser traps from Elec Man - something I could probably do in my sleep.
Now, with Mega Man it's all about the gameplay. Controlling Mega Man feels phenomenally satisfying and to just jump around shooting enemies is enjoyable enough in of itself. Particularly when considering the 8 bit-games. But Mega Man shines the most in its level design and boss fights. Unfortunately these are things that got worse as time moved on, and the creations we would face would become more bizarre one game after the next while the level design started to get a strong déjà vu feeling.
Mega Man 7, along with part 10, are the winners of this collection, but is not the best games in the series.
Why Did You Leave Us Keiji Inafune?
And all of this was the reason to why Mega Man Legacy Collection was so perfect, it gathered the first six games in a lovely 8-bit package. When it then became as popular as it did, Capcom decided to also launch part 7-10 on a separate collection called Mega Man Legacy Collection 2. None of the latter mentioned games feels like classics to me, and they just feel pale and hollow in comparison to the collection with only the first six classics.
Mega Man 7 was originally released for the Super Nintendo as the first and only game to be released for a new console in the traditional series. The problem was that important developers from the core Mega Man-team has left (not least Keiji Inafune) and Mega Man X had been released the year before. Therefore the newly produced title concluded as an return to an old game, but without that sense of magic that the classics had. It kind of felt like a 16 bit edition of an 8 bit game where old aspects just had been reused, with slightly more colors and better details. The only real news in the game was a store that could be popped out anywhere, but it just helps to lower the tempo of the game - and its not as fun to flip trough store-menus as it is blasting colorful enemies with Capcoms blue iconic bomber, in that aspect it was not the best update the game could have gotten in my opinion.
Extras are available, but it is too stingy with the content in the end.
But don't get me wrong, it's an "okay" game, worse then the series best, but still not bad. Mega Man 7 is quite entertaining to playtrough just to see the classical Mega Man jump trough a slightly more technical advanced gaming world. But that's about all you'll get from the title.
But Mega Man 8, there is a game that really sticks out. It was first released for the Playstation and Sega Saturn. That means that it of course had more detailed graphics then it's predecessor, and the design could well be described almost as a comic. It doesn't help the gameplay though, as the lack of pixel graphics took away some of the great feeling of control that we previously had. It just didn't feel as sharp, crispy or tight as in previous games. It hurts to say, but Mega Man 8 felt in may ways just like the massive amount of similar soulless platforming games that dominated that era.
In Mega Man 10 you can choose to play as Proto Man.
As i said, it offered nothing unique in its gameplay and the big sale-hype was in the animated sequences that came with game. Videos in games were super popular back then but sadly, often more than not, of very poor quality. What sticks out in this game is the god-awful voice acting that might be some of the worst ever delivered in a game.
Lucky Number Nine
Mega Man is really hard, get ready to die a lot.
For my own part it was Mega Man 9 that I was most excited for in this collection. It was the comeback for the 8 bits-Mega Man and a real surprise when it was first released in year 2008. I absolutely loved it in -08 but since then the love has faded somewhat. I loved the games difficulty with all the instant kill traps and hard passages, but still it was a kind enough game in providing us with life's and extra life's to be able to progress.
Precision was something that became very important in Mega Man 9, and while there are some traps that the only way to overcome is trough "trial and error" it still is a joy to play. The series maybe toughest level is present in this game (IMO) - namely, the Hornet Mans level - I personally have dubbed this level to one of the best, and hardest boss-fights in the whole series.
Mega Man music is in its weakest moments still better than most, and a reason to play this collection.
I originally remember Mega Man 10 as a worse copy of Mega Man 9, but that's an unfair description. In many ways this game is much more related to the earlier Mega Man-games and keeps a good tempo throughout the experience with hard levels and awesome bosses. Particularly Commando Man has always been one of my favorites with it's masterful background music and genius challenge that we need to solve to break down this giant beast.
Concluding
I played the games in the right order and my experience of Mega Man 10 feels like a kind of nice dessert to finish of the other three. It's a title that would fit with the 6 games from the previous collection, with other words its an awesome game but still it doesn't help enough when is is 2 fewer games than in the previous collection, and also that some of the weakest titles are in it. It's no reasons to review something that's not in the game, but Capcom should have complemented the lack of titles by throwing in the Mega Drive-bigshot Mega Man: The Wily Wars that so many of us have missed. The package would have felt a lot more motivated and complete.
Mega Man 8 feels weak and not as clear as its more primitive siblings.
These four games are the essence of Mega Man Legacy Collection 2, but Capcom has also added a few extras to increase the content a little. It consist of the possibility to just play against bosses, remixed levels, pictures that has been produced with the game and an array of challenges to embark upon. Nothing super special really and it hurts to say that previous collections has contained more, and better content than this one.
In the end this feels like the left-overs from the much better predecessor. Mega Man Legacy Collection 2 might be fun to own just to have the complete collection if you have the first one, and for those who truly love the Mega Man-games. For everybody else i would rather advise to buy Mega Man Legacy Collection instead, as it is much better.
Sources
- megaman.capcom.com/
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