Review: Mega Man

Written by Ben Vollmer

Released for the NES in 1987, Mega Man is infamous for its long run of success in the late 20th century. Most importantly, the franchise has titles that hold up extremely well even against modern standards. The combat is tightly controlled and well paced, the weapon mechanics are more nuanced than most shooters and the art style is clean enough that any aging is hardly noticeable.

Mega Man, much like other retro platformers, doesn’t waste any time getting the play acclimated with its difficulty. Traditional platforming isn’t really the game’s focus. Instead, it forces the player to progress through a series of obstacles that intertwine the game’s movement and combat. Jumping from one platform to another is rarely enough, as a wide range of tough enemies are almost certainly going to block your path.

The game’s most interesting feature is its non-linearity. Giving the player their choice of six levels to open up the game, each area feels distinctly different. Your reward for jumping and running your way to the end is a tough boss battle and (hopefully) the weapon they carry. Each boss has a unique weakness: one of the other boss weapons that you may or may not have gathered up to that point. The weapons themselves feel distinct, if sometimes to the point of uselessness against most other enemies. Toying with each boss to decipher their weakness is undoubtedly the game’s high point, especially when you consider how tough the bosses are without a weakness to bring them down.

The non-linearity of the game comes to a screeching halt with a couple of hours left in the game. Instead, you’re met with a series of boss runs and some of the worst enemies in the game. Checkpoints are few and far between, so expect to run through the same parts dozens of times. It has the potential to disrupt the flow of play unless your skill level supersedes that of several (often) unfair CPU enemies.

Ultimately, Mega Man is a game that feels distinctly modern despite its two decade old tag. Odd hitboxes and random difficulty spikes are they only real issues that plague the first iteration of the long-running franchise*. Perhaps most fascinating is the sheer amount of innovation that Inafune and Capcom delivered in 1987. Many of the game’s core mechanics still play today and serve as influence to a variety of genres.

Score: 8.0

Rank: #41

*It should be noted that I played the Mega Man Legacy Collection version of the game. The port ran well and only experience slowdown in times that the original game also faltered.