Game of the Month #12 - Mega Man 1-6

Let's ring in the New Year with not one, not two, but six Mega Man games to play! This month, for the Game(s) of the Month, we'll be working through the classic Mega Man games for the NES.



There are a variety of ways to play these games:
- The original NES cartridges
- Mega Man Anniversary Collection (PS2, GC, Xbox)
- 3DS Virtual Console (make sure to get the NES versions, not the GB versions that used Roman numerals)
- Most recently, the Mega Man Legacy Collection (PS4, XBO, Steam, 3DS eventually?)

So get to it, and share your thoughts!

i would love to check these games out. but i promised i wouldn't buy anything until i clear out my backlog.

eventually, i will get to these games.

I might have to get in on this one I love me some Mega Man! Might even dust of the old NES and play the real copies.

i would love to check these games out. but i promised i wouldn't buy anything until i clear out my backlog.

eventually, i will get to these games.

NES emulator?

I'll be playing these games on my PSP, for what it's worth

NES emulator?

I'll be playing these games on my PSP, for what it's worth

i was looking into it this morning, and i might wait for the ps4 collection to come out in february. got a ton of amazon gift cards for christmas, so $30 of it might go to the collection. definitely wanna clear out more of the backlog for now though. i just finished tales from the borderlands and beat bayonetta last night. until dawn is up next, then i've still got telltale's game of thrones, dragon age inquisition, arkham knight, dying light, super mario 3d world, dkc tropical freeze. and those are just the physical games i have sitting on my entertainment center. my ps+ backlog is obnoxious and i've got 5-7 vita games i want to get to. not to mention uncharted 4 in april (and replaying 1-3 before then), and my goal of playing every kingdom hearts game this year.

just all that could take me to 2017.

I won't be participating this month, partially because I want to save money and don't own the games already, but mostly because I'm not too great at the classic Mega Man games... and while I'm sure I can 'git gud' (I got good enough at the X games at least), I really wanna focus on getting my backlog down this month, and so I'm playing a bunch of short games that I *am* good enough at (yay SNK fighters). >.>"

But, I do want to hear impressions! I did play MM2 to completion in the past, and watched a lot of MM3, but I don't know too much about the others, other than MM1's platforms of dooooooooooom, lol.

i was looking into it this morning, and i might wait for the ps4 collection to come out in february. got a ton of amazon gift cards for christmas, so $30 of it might go to the collection. definitely wanna clear out more of the backlog for now though. i just finished tales from the borderlands and beat bayonetta last night. until dawn is up next, then i've still got telltale's game of thrones, dragon age inquisition, arkham knight, dying light, super mario 3d world, dkc tropical freeze. and those are just the physical games i have sitting on my entertainment center. my ps+ backlog is obnoxious and i've got 5-7 vita games i want to get to. not to mention uncharted 4 in april (and replaying 1-3 before then), and my goal of playing every kingdom hearts game this year.

just all that could take me to 2017.

Backlog problems ;)

So I started playing these on the megaman legacy collection via steam, though I have all of them for NES, I more or less didn't want to dig it out lol.

I finished Mega Man, I am honestly not sure I could have beat wiley's castle if they had removed the pause trick, that first cyclops boss to me, feels almost impossible without.

I will play 2 probably tommorow or later tonight.

Going live on Twitch with gameplay:

https://www.twitch.tv/kerfmerf

So I started playing these on the megaman legacy collection via steam, though I have all of them for NES, I more or less didn't want to dig it out lol.

I finished Mega Man, I am honestly not sure I could have beat wiley's castle if they had removed the pause trick, that first cyclops boss to me, feels almost impossible without.

I will play 2 probably tommorow or later tonight.

Started playing Mega Man 1 today, made it all the way to the Yellow Devil and he's kicking my ass lol. Haven't had any major problems anywhere else, though that floating platform section in Ice Man's stage is a bit iffy. I tell you what, having never played a Mega Man game until now, but I've seen them played mostly via speedruns (though I've forgotten most of the stuff I've seen), I have a new found respect for those able to play these competently. I was not prepared for how "weighty" Mega Man feels, and combined with a lot of lag and slowdown, it can get pretty frustrating for the wrong reasons. Still though, that Yellow Devil is killing me legitimately until I nail down his patterns, hope it doesn't take too long.

Started playing Mega Man 1 today, made it all the way to the Yellow Devil and he's kicking my ass lol. Haven't had any major problems anywhere else, though that floating platform section in Ice Man's stage is a bit iffy. I tell you what, having never played a Mega Man game until now, but I've seen them played mostly via speedruns (though I've forgotten most of the stuff I've seen), I have a new found respect for those able to play these competently. I was not prepared for how "weighty" Mega Man feels, and combined with a lot of lag and slowdown, it can get pretty frustrating for the wrong reasons. Still though, that Yellow Devil is killing me legitimately until I nail down his patterns, hope it doesn't take too long.

It's been a while since I've played most of them (I've been slacking on pulling them out this month), but I feel like that might've been the single hardest thing in the series. If you can make it past that fight without abusing the pause glitch, you're all set for pretty much everything else. I don't think the other games were quite as janky as the first one either.

It's been a while since I've played most of them (I've been slacking on pulling them out this month), but I feel like that might've been the single hardest thing in the series. If you can make it past that fight without abusing the pause glitch, you're all set for pretty much everything else. I don't think the other games were quite as janky as the first one either.

I was actually aware of the pause glitch and I'll be honest it was the first thing I tried to do when I encountered the Yellow Devil but it didn't work because I was pressing the "wrong" pause button (I didn't realise LB on the xbox controller was an actual pause) so I assumed it was fixed until I read your post. I gave him a few more attempts but I was much too impatient to keep trying "legit", mostly because of how annoying that jankiness could be.

After completing it now though, Wily was a bit of an anti climax, the real final boss of the game is Fire Man, I just could not fight that guy without taking heavy damage. I'm sure he has some super simple pattern or something but no matter what I could never find a decent rhythm to it. The other bosses aren't so bad though.



that jump right there is the hardest thing in the game. I actually had to stop the game and go look it up on youtube to make sure I wasn't missing something stupid. I learned that I was using the M weapon wrong for a start and thank god I was because that jump is the stuff of nightmares lol.

Anyways, onwards to Mega Man 2

edit: Mega Man 2 is done, or what you could call "Metal Man 2" because that Metal Blade is just too good. It's impressive how much better it is over 1, as I mentioned in the Wins thread. None of the bosses were that bad, at least not Fire Man levels of "i cant stop taking damage" bad. Air Man was tough to avoid damage on, sometimes it felt impossible wherever the lil tornadoes decided to spawn, and Crash Man really likes to get all up in your grill and stay there, but easily dealt with. Worst part though? Wily 4 by far, especially that boss. Not a great idea to make a boss invincible to everything except 1 weapon, that's easy to miss, required to blow up the walls protecting the boss, and uses a ton of power with each shot.

I agree with your assesment of the boss in wily's castle where you have to use the crash bombs, it especially sucks if you die while killing them...and have to either decide to restart the level or farm enough to refill your weapon. I feel 3 improved in some areas that 2 really needed.

I am playing through 3 right now, and at some points the lag I was getting was making it almost unplayable, not really sure what was causing the lag, as I know that it wasn't there before when I played for NES and Gamecube, curious if anyone playing on the legacy version for steam is experiencing it too. I got a little in 1 and 2, but 3 right now there have been a few times that I just wanted to stop because of it, course now I am and w ill finish it tommorow probably.

Streaming more gameplay, halfway through Mega Man 4!

https://www.twitch.tv/kerfmerf

I agree with your assesment of the boss in wily's castle where you have to use the crash bombs, it especially sucks if you die while killing them...and have to either decide to restart the level or farm enough to refill your weapon. I feel 3 improved in some areas that 2 really needed.

I am playing through 3 right now, and at some points the lag I was getting was making it almost unplayable, not really sure what was causing the lag, as I know that it wasn't there before when I played for NES and Gamecube, curious if anyone playing on the legacy version for steam is experiencing it too. I got a little in 1 and 2, but 3 right now there have been a few times that I just wanted to stop because of it, course now I am and w ill finish it tommorow probably.

Just completed 3 and truthfully I wasn't a fan of it at all, it felt like a major step back from 2. I was playing the PC steam version and there was copious amounts of lag and it would kick in at some of the worst areas, worse it occurred a lot during some of the MM2 boss refights making them so much harder than they oughta be, Heat Man for example I could pretty much flawless in 2 I could barely avoid him here it was so badly done.

Overall though the games difficulty just feels....off, like the series became self aware that they were tough platformers but instead of remaining fair they became spitefully mean and difficult for difficulties sake, there's so many enemies that attack from odd, almost unavoidable angles, enemies placed right in front of pits and I think worst of all is the checkpointing, there were only a handful of places in 1 or 2 where it would set you back pretty far, here you get sent back to the start pretty much every time. That's not too bad until you realise that if you game over on the Wily Stages, BAM re do them all. It's the first time in the 3 games I've made use of the Legacy Collection's "Save Game" function as something other than a "quick password" system.

The bosses were another big annoyance for me, most of them feel really awkward to fight, and damage feels really unavoidable at times in a lot of them, I think what annoyed me most about the bosses is that it felt like there was no logic to their weaknesses, and most of their weapons were so situational it was hard to really benefit from them, top spin and search snake for example just never felt good to use. Trying to fight Needle Man with the lag caused by the Gemini weapon was a nightmare, the lag made it unusable anywhere in the game outside that boss fight.

Overall it felt like MM3 was made by the "B" team, so I'm hoping 4 brings it back to form.

I can agree with most of you are saying, there are a few things I think I liked more in 3, for example energy tanks saved through continues, where IIRC 2 they did not.

I had way fonder memories of MM3 as a kid, than I have now after playing it again. I do agree that it seems especially in the end the devs had no ideas, so they rehashed the bosses from 2, and then threw in that yelow cyclops from 1, and decided that would be pretty much how the game would end. At least there were none of those, you have exactly enough shots to win the boss fight type situations like those turrets and the crash bomb.

I started 4, and am only a few bosses in before going to bed, finished toad, bright and pharaoh. Toads lvl started a bit harder than I had expected forgot the rain pushed back that much, and I missed that second jump a couple times, sadly. After that I don't have much of a judgement yet, aside from the fact that so far I haven't seemed to hit any of the terrible lag spikes I would get in 3.

Over all I liked 4 more than 3, but not more than 2. I had a lot less frame rate issues in 4, however the only 2 bosses I found to be any challenge were ring man and the red ball thrower near the end.

Ring man wasn't a hard patter but for some reason I just could not dodge the second ring on its way back even though I recognized how do so on a consistent basis.

Over all I liked 4 more than 3, but not more than 2. I had a lot less frame rate issues in 4, however the only 2 bosses I found to be any challenge were ring man and the red ball thrower near the end.

Ring man wasn't a hard patter but for some reason I just could not dodge the second ring on its way back even though I recognized how do so on a consistent basis.

I'm with ya on 4. I've got Ring Man and Dive Man left to tackle, and likewise on Ring Man, his pattern is so "easy" but the timing on it catches me every time. Only had 1 shot at him with his weakness though, so I'll get him next time for sure. The boss weakness logic alone is just so much better in 4 compared to 3, it's maybe a bit abstract at times but I've been able to pretty much guess the order to tackle the bosses in and that makes the game flow so much nicer, and the weapons are much more useful, Toad Man's is amazing. And like you said the lag is nowhere as bad which makes it much less frustrating. Enjoying it so far.

edit: just completed it. It wasn't bad at all, though some of the boss refights made me aware of how badly some of them are designed. Bright Man in particular can be very, very cheap, I didn't remember having that much trouble with him first time around, but if / when he does his time stop move you are getting hit no matter what, unless there's a way to avoid him I'm overlooking. Same with Toad Man, nearly every time I fought him I was able to keep him hopping after me, he was such a non-threat that I kept him as a safety health refill after refighting the tougher bosses, until he for whatever reason broke his pattern and just cast his unavoidable rain move. Still, I guess it could have been worse. The final boss is a bit iffy too, again they resorted to making him invincible to all but a few weapons, and I was pretty much drained by the time I got there, yeah you can grind the little enemies outside but that's not much of an excuse.

Completed Mega Man 5, it wasn't bad. I've read comments from people in the past that say 5 and 6 are the weaker entries but I didn't see much that was amiss about 5, like it wasn't amazing but it wasn't awful either. It was markedly easier though, I had taken out half of the bosses with the mega buster before having to start thinking about weaknesses their patterns were pretty simple to work with. I missed the letter G though which annoyed me, I was pretty sure I picked it up, or else I missed it and didn't notice, either way I didn't unlock whatever it is it unlocks. There were only a few points in the game that really annoyed me, both of them Wily stages, one is about half way into Wily 1 I think, there's little spinning circular platforms you have to jump across, the lag kicked in there and only there throughout the game and it cost me a few lives because of it. The 2nd is the start of Wily 2, water, instant death spikes, those little hard hat enemies sitting right on the edge of platforms, took a few lives from me. Other than that there wasn't anything overly difficult.

edit: completed 6, it wasn't great, something was lacking in the level design, lots of little cheap sections and design wise they looked rather..garish at times. Plant Man and Knight Man's stages in particular just don't look good, but they are still a lot better than the eye sore that was Spark Man's stage in 3. I wasn't a fan of the 3 suits and that silly little cutscene that plays every time you switch them. This was also the worst game I've encountered of the 6 for input being dropped outright, and that's without lag for the majority of the game. Some bosses, like Yamato Man, who is extremely easy to fight, was made infuriatingly difficult because the game just wouldn't respond to the jump button. I'd be left standing there taking hits for no reason. The lag cropped up again in a few places still, I'd like to know if this is a product of the emulation, was there this much lag on the original consoles? because I find it quite staggering how such a problem persists through 4 sequels when it was practically solved in Mega Man 2. I enjoyed it for the most part though, even though I'd agree it's one of the weaker entries.

Overall I enjoyed the series a lot. It has it's good, bad and great moments. 2 is by far the best for me, and I have a feeling that 3 is maybe a great game too but the overall lag just ruined it completely, it's probably also a better game when you replay it perhaps just not so great on that first playthrough. I wouldn't call any of them bad games though.

Completed Mega Man 5, it wasn't bad. I've read comments from people in the past that say 5 and 6 are the weaker entries but I didn't see much that was amiss about 5, like it wasn't amazing but it wasn't awful either. It was markedly easier though, I had taken out half of the bosses with the mega buster before having to start thinking about weaknesses their patterns were pretty simple to work with. I missed the letter G though which annoyed me, I was pretty sure I picked it up, or else I missed it and didn't notice, either way I didn't unlock whatever it is it unlocks. There were only a few points in the game that really annoyed me, both of them Wily stages, one is about half way into Wily 1 I think, there's little spinning circular platforms you have to jump across, the lag kicked in there and only there throughout the game and it cost me a few lives because of it. The 2nd is the start of Wily 2, water, instant death spikes, those little hard hat enemies sitting right on the edge of platforms, took a few lives from me. Other than that there wasn't anything overly difficult.

edit: completed 6, it wasn't great, something was lacking in the level design, lots of little cheap sections and design wise they looked rather..garish at times. Plant Man and Knight Man's stages in particular just don't look good, but they are still a lot better than the eye sore that was Spark Man's stage in 3. I wasn't a fan of the 3 suits and that silly little cutscene that plays every time you switch them. This was also the worst game I've encountered of the 6 for input being dropped outright, and that's without lag for the majority of the game. Some bosses, like Yamato Man, who is extremely easy to fight, was made infuriatingly difficult because the game just wouldn't respond to the jump button. I'd be left standing there taking hits for no reason. The lag cropped up again in a few places still, I'd like to know if this is a product of the emulation, was there this much lag on the original consoles? because I find it quite staggering how such a problem persists through 4 sequels when it was practically solved in Mega Man 2. I enjoyed it for the most part though, even though I'd agree it's one of the weaker entries.

Overall I enjoyed the series a lot. It has it's good, bad and great moments. 2 is by far the best for me, and I have a feeling that 3 is maybe a great game too but the overall lag just ruined it completely, it's probably also a better game when you replay it perhaps just not so great on that first playthrough. I wouldn't call any of them bad games though.

Wtih 5 I agree so far ( I have to finish it, I am in wileys at the moment) I will probably finish 6 tonight and give my over all input.

I do agree that so far the series for me is real solid, I only played up through 4 before as a kid that I recall, 2 is still my favorite so far. I also do not recall any of the framerate/lag issues in the originals, it honestly just may be a product of the port and higher end hardware than the ol NES

There really shouldn't be a problem with being able to run them properly. I mean, there have been cycle accurate NES emulators for years and years at this point, and that's without access to the original games or hardware specs. My first thought was to compare them to old games being sold that run in DOSbox or ScummVM, but it's probably more accurate to compare to the Genesis games on Steam, which also run in an emulator as far as I know (and work quite well).

Of course, I don't know what Capcom actually did with this particular release. I feel like I heard something about it before it came out but I can't remember anything, and I don't have it myself to compare to the anniversary one or the originals.

The NES versions had framerate drops aswell. And I remember hearing from somewhere that the slowdown in the steam versions was left in intentionally.

So I finished up 5 and 6, 6 was pretty easy. Some of the level design was wierd.

I did get the MegamanV in 5, which just give you beat, sort of how getting BEAT in 6 does.

Over all I think 2 is still the best entry. 6 I thought played smooth, but wasn't challenging and I found it super easy to slide by accident in 6 vs any of the others. All in all I am glad I played through them again, it has been a long time and was sort of a blast from the past for me. Ironically when I was a kid and sick I would play mega man, I was sick most of the past 2 weeks with a nagging cold and playing mega man.

Finished up 6 tonight, so I'll give my opinions on each of the entries:

Mega Man 1 - It feels weird having to give an opinion on this game because it's such a classic. It's a game I don't necessarily like nor dislike, but I find myself playing it every couple of months as a quick test of skill, almost as a way to freshen up my reflexes. It's like playing Solitaire, or a quick pick-up game of soccer or basketball. Obviously I enjoy it or I wouldn't keep coming back to it, but it's hard to nail down any sort of overall feeling or rating (even though I apparently gave it a 7/10 at some point on the site).

Mega Man 2 - This is the best, no doubt. The music, the level design, the sprites, the gameplay, it's all packaged in a tight little container of awesome. Despite how many times I've completed it, I still find myself experimenting with different stage orders and weapon match-ups. The ONLY complaint I have about this game is that Mega Man still has slippery physics when you go from running to a standstill, but that's easy enough to get used to within a few minutes of gameplay.

Mega Man 3 - Still a solid game, but I agree with some earlier mentions in this thread that it feels like the team knew about Mega Man's reputation for difficulty and tried to work off that premise rather than strong enemy design. I legitimately love the level designs and the color palettes used as well as much of the music, but the bosses were frustrating and had practically no logic to the boss weaknesses (something that unfortunately the later games also began to copy).

Mega Man 4 - Another quite difficult game, but this one felt less cheap, and the introduction of a charge shot was a brilliant step for the series. The robot master rotation this time made NO sense at all and the second phase of the Wily Machine is legitimately stupid (you have to use Drill Bomb but you have to detonate it JUST BEFORE it hits the machine), but I at least appreciated that the designers tried to come up with new ideas that weren't A) predictable element types (ice, fire, electric, water, etc) or B) abstract beyond all logic (Gemini, Top, Snake, etc).

Mega Man 5 - As has been mentioned, this one took a major step down in the difficulty. Most of the robot masters and late game bosses can be easily taken out with the charge shot, which has such a ridiculous spread that one shot can sometimes wipe out the whole screen of enemies. Still, I think that sacrificing some of the difficulty in return for new and interesting game mechanics (especially Gravity Man's stage) made for a fun ride. I'd even consider suggesting this one to people as a good place to enter the series if they get stuck on some of MM1's harder sections.

Mega Man 6 - I admit, this is the point of the series where I kind of just stop caring. It's neat that they introduced mythological warrior-type robot masters, but those are only half of the bosses, and their weakness, pathetically enough, go left-to-right, top-to bottom on the stage select screen. The other four RMs are predictable element types: Wind beats Fire, Fire beats Ice, Ice beats Plant. This is the only game of the classic 8-bit games I would actually consider to have poor level design. Most of them are cheap nightmares to traverse... unless you have the Rush Jet adapter which lets you fly over almost any obstacle in every single level. Even the Mr. X and Wily stages, where the developers know for a fact that you have the jetpack, are easily flown over. Rush has always been overpowered, but in other games they limited his usage by giving him a power meter like other weapons--here, the only limitation is an arbitrary time limit. So basically you can use Rush Jet for easy mode or choose to not use it for extra extra hard mode. And if all that wasn't bad enough, this game also drops inputs like crazy. Long rant for a not very good game.

I do plan on playing 7 and 8 as well if anybody else finished early and wants to tack those on. Might even do 9 and 10 if I'm so inclined!