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 When Capcom released Mega Man in 1987 they had no idea that they were unleashing
what would become the most successful third party series on the NES. In fact, the world was unaware of this
as well because Mega Man was
not a hot seller. With the odd
label and box artwork misrepresenting the game it wouldn’t be until Mega Man 2 was released in 1989
with appropriate artwork and a cover story from Nintendo Power that the
series really took off. Now it isn’t
like the first game went completely unnoticed – it did consistently hover
in the mid-teens throughout the first year of Nintendo Power’s Top 30
poll, it just wasn’t the sensation that the rest of the NES games would
be on Nintendo Power’s Top 30.
The game itself is a platforming
game where you star as Mega Man, a boy robot who has been created by Dr.
Light, who must track down and destroy the evil Dr. Wily. Your weapon of choice is a gun and you
must use it to destroy lots of robotic enemies on each level. You have an energy bar that moves down
each time you get hit. When killed
most bad guys will just leave behind points but a few will leave behind
energy balls for you to pick up, these are always a welcome surprise. Throughout each level you will also
have to make precise jumps, shoot enemies while you are climbing ladders
and make quick movements to avoid instant death via spiky or fiery
pits. At the end of each level you
will face one of Dr. Wily’s evil robots.
In order to get to Dr. Wily you
must first defeat each of his six evil robots (Guts Man, Fire Man, Elec
Man, Cut Man, Ice Man and Bomb Man) who each reside in a world that is
very representative of the robot.
For instance in order to defeat Fire Man you must travel through a
level full of fiery objects. Once
you have vanquished one of the evil robots you then gain their special
weapon, which you can use throughout the rest of your quest. What makes Mega Man so unique is that you get to choose the order that
you want to battle each of the robots.
If you are wise you can usually figure out which special weapon will
easily destroy each robot. The
neat thing is that if a level is causing you problems you can always
decide to  move on to a different level and come back
to that one later. Once you have
defeated all six robots, you then proceed to Dr. Wily’s level. His level is really four levels in one
and is extremely difficult.
The original Mega Man has a very similar look and gameplay to all of its
sequels on the NES. Along the way
many small additions would be made, some would improve the gameplay and some
would be frustratingly lame but the series always remained grounded in
the style of the first game.
Besides the five sequels that Mega
Man spawned there was also one Famicom-only release that featured all
of the Mega Man characters in a board game very similar to Life. This game has been translated and is
easily found as a ROM on the Internet.
Of course Mega Man has
continued to be sequeled like crazy with the number of Mega Man related
games totaling well over 50.
Positives:
Mega
Man introduced the
concept of being able to choose when you wanted to play each level. It also allowed for a little common
sense in that you might notice that certain weapons would work against
fire or ice while others would be obviously ineffective. Of course, this cool concept wouldn’t
be that great if it wasn’t for the top notch gameplay, solid graphics and
genuine challenge that Mega Man offers. After playing the original it is not
hard to see why this series became so popular.
Glaring
Negatives:
 There isn’t too much wrong with this
game. One major problem is that if
you don’t notice the Magnet Beam gun hidden in Electro Man’s level, the
game is impossible to beat because you have to have it to get past a
certain part in Dr. Wily’s castle.
Thankfully you can go back and get it but if you don’t know about
it you won’t understand why you can’t get past that part in Wily’s
castle. It is also unfortunate
that there is no password option because this game is one tough
cookie. I also wish that the story
was fleshed out a little in the game itself because you can tell that
there is a cool story going on that you are missing out on.
Graphics
and Sound: Great
For a game released in 1987 the graphics
and sound are superb. Each level
has a different look and song.
Every level is bright and has a general theme to it such as snow,
fire or the sky. Each level’s song
is intense and drives you along on your quest to thwart Dr. Wily.
Gameplay
and Controls: Very good
The controls in Mega Man are very tight but there
are a couple little problems. Mega
Man does what you want, he moves quickly, he can shoot his gun when
climbing up and down ladders and he jumps pretty high. Unfortunately he can’t duck (get used
to it, that is one thing that never changes in this series), he can only
shoot his gun straight ahead and he seems to have slightly slippery
movements that definitely got tightened up in Mega Man 2. One
strange thing is that when you are standing on things that fly if you get
hit you automatically fall through the object to your imminent death. There is a strange feature in the game
involving the pause button. If you
shoot a weapon and pause the game right when it hits a bad guy, you can
then rapidly pause and un-pause to hit the guy multiple times from the
same shot. This is most effective
with Elec Man’s weapon and is the easiest way to defeat really difficult
end guys. Of course, you’ll
probably feel a little dirty if you use this method.
Features:
Choose your own adventure
The main feature of this game is
that you can play the levels in whatever order you want. You also get unlimited continues, which
you will definitely need.
Fun?: Definitely
I really like how you can choose
your own path. I thought Guts Man
looked cool so I went after him right away. Then I went for Ice Man and after a
couple of quick deaths I realized I didn’t want to play that level yet so
I went back and took on Fire Man instead.
I don’t remember any sidescroller having options like that back in
1987. I also love discovering which
weapon works on which robot.
Challenge:
Tough
Mega
Man is known as the
toughest game of the series. This
is because there is no password option and the controls are a little less
forgiving in this installment.
Luckily, you have unlimited continues so with a little patience
and a lot of determination this game is very beatable.
Replay: Yes
 You can try to beat the robots in a
different order or just try and make it through quicker. The first time you beat the game it
will take you quite awhile but you will become a master of each level as
you die many times and are forced to replay the level. You can also try
to beat the game without using the special weapons you receive from each
robot.
2
Player: No
But the game is hard enough that
you could just take turns after each Game Over.
Online
Manual?: Yes at Nintendo Age
Yes
check Nintendo Age, they have a scan of every manual on the NES.
Bottom
Line: Classic
If you are a fan of platformers
then Mega Man is a must
have. It has all of the basics of
the later games in the series without all of the crazy additions like a
pet robotic dog or a mega-boosting gun.
If you can pick this one up for less than 10 bucks, don’t
hesitate.
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