Jump to content
IGNORED

Sequel Showdown #1 - Mega Man


AstralSoul

Sequel Showdown #1 - Mega Man  

49 members have voted

  1. 1. Which mainline Mega Man is your favorite?



Recommended Posts

6>3>5>11>9>7>10>4>2>1 (haven't played 8 yet)

I'll try my best to explain why Mega Man 6 is my favorite:

  • The theme of the game being a 'World Tour' is pretty cool, resulting in visually striking stages and the accompanying Robot Masters are my favorite designed bunch.
  • Stages with branching paths are more plentiful here(Cossack 4 from MM4 was the first I believe) and design like that is always welcome.
  • I like the Rush Adapters more then Rush Coil and Jet.
  • Most of the weapons from the Robot Masters pack quite a punch and the ones that don't make up for it in creative ways.
    • Also, Beat the Bird is overpowered. (If the games code was altered to have Beat attack bosses, you'd essentially have an "instant win" button.)
  • The music is great and Flame Man's theme is my personal favorite track from the series. 
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

2 because 3 is laggy, bloated with rehash MM2 stuff, and generally overrated AF and like every poser I’ve not played 4-6.

What he said, except for the part about not playing 4-6; I've played and enjoyed them all.  9 and 10 are great, but the extreme difficulty made them feel like a day job to beat them and deters me from ever wanting to go back.

Now I understand that Most modern game developers are Millenials who weren't even born when the NES was at it's height, so I've got to clear something up for them young'uns:

"NES HARD" IS A MYTH!  NOT ALL NES GAMES ARE HARD!!!!    EVERY MODERN "RETRO" STYLE GAME DOES NOT HAVE TO BE HARDER THAN BATTLETOADS!!!  WE WILL NOT TAKE AWAY YOUR STREET CRED IF YOU MAKE YOUR GAMES MORE MANAGEABLE!!!   FUCK..........

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let’s just agree that the entire series is awesome. I don’t find any of them substantially better than others. They all have a lot going for them and it is amazing how consistent capcom has been in creating this series. It is one of my all time favorite series. 

If I would have to choose one, I would go for part 2. Part of it is nostalgia (I had it when I was a kid), but part is also the atmosphere . The colors, stages, music.. it just draws me in every time I play it. And that intro is just beautiful in its simplicity. What a way to get started !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Dr. Morbis speaking the truth. I kinda get where it's coming from, but the term "Nintendo hard" always bothered me, because growing up as a kid who was pretty shitty at video games, Nintendo was where I was able to actually beat games.

There are a couple of good examples of great, challenging games (such as Battletoads or the Ninja Gaiden series) on the NES, but in general most of the really hard games on the platform are that hard because they are poorly designed.

The Mega Man games were never particularly hard, and that's definitely something that I feel that Mega Man 9 and 10 just misunderstood. It's not just that they are hard games, but the fact that they rely so much on that implied difficulty that it reflects every aspect of the level design, to the point where parts of it feels like I Wanna Be The Guy. I resonate with the fact that beating them "feels like a day job", because playing through a stage you won't beat it just by playing well enough. You need to rely on a lot of trial and error to an annoying degree, which can be taxing when paired with the way too long stages.
I mentioned earlier in this thread that Capcom had practically eradicated the notorious Yoku Blocks from their later games (here is the entirety of their appearance in MM6) because they realised that basing a challenge entirely on memorizing a long sequence of timed platforms isn't what makes Mega Man fun.
Mega Man 9 takes the opposite approach and puts them right across a bottomless pit for half a stage, in areas where you don't even have a chance to observe them before you have to traverse them.

I know a lot of people have a lot of love for Mega Man 9 and 10, so I have to give them some merit. They just don't feel much like Mega Man to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had all the Mega Man games growing up, and I recently played through them all again, here's my thoughts. I will try to look at things objectively.

The original Mega Man game is fun, yet it's a bit rough. I feel as though the controls aren't as smooth, and the game is a bit more difficult. There's a lot of experimental elements, such as the scoring system. It's a fun game, but it's missing elements such as Rush, energy tanks, etc. I honestly think that if this game never spawned a series of sequels, which tweaked the gameplay, that this would have ended up like Doropie / Krion Conquest, namely fun but overlooked.

Things start to take form in Mega Man 2. You get multiple devices that would be the foundation for Rush, energy tanks are here, and this would be the first Mega Man game that feels essentially like the rest of the series. The lens room sucks though, and we still don't have Rush or the slide.

Mega Man 3 introduces Rush and the slide. The Doc Robot stages can be seen as the predecessor to the "fake out" castle stories. I think things are starting to really shape up, though I think the game does drag a bit due to the Doc Robots essentially being rehashes of earlier stages. Maybe if they included some of my favourites like Top and Snake, I'd feel differently.

Mega Man 4 I feel is likely the peak, despite the fact that no one would ever recognise this. We finally get the mega buster, and the two boss hideouts. Now we have all the key elements for a Mega Man game.

Mega  Man 5 adds the letters and Beat. The thing is though, to me, this doesn't add much to the game. I've never felt a great loyalty towards Beat. Furthermore, the game is too easy, you can easily best most of the bosses and enemies with the mega buster, so what's the point in even having special weapons? I'd say that this would be a good entry level Mega Man game for those players who are green, or didn't grow up on the series. Fun game, but we're on the way down.

By Mega Man 6, it's obvious we are past the peak. The weapon upgrade system instead of the traditional Rush can be seen as the predecessor to the armour and weapons upgrades used in the original Mega Man X game. Like Beat, I personally didn't think much was added with these, and I much preferred the original Rush anyways.

Then there are the alternative paths. I actually found these to be annoying at best, and quite stressful at worst, for a game series that was traditionally linear. I asked my brother, who is a much bigger Mega Man fan than I am, and he hates it as well, since some of his favorite paths are actually the "wrong" path. So he is forced to skip sections not the game he likes, or replay stages twice. It's a lose - lose for him.

So yeah, although I have the most nostalgia for Mega Man 2 and 3, and like them the best, I think 4 is in reality the peak, with 5 just being slightly lower. My brother actually agrees with me on all these points too, having formed a similar conclusion independent of me.

Edited by fcgamer
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

fcgamer on the whole, I find it hard to argue with your descriptions of the games, in particular though #6.  It always bothered me that Capcom wussed out and had Nintendo basically beg them to publish it in the US as they sold well but they had already caved and moved into the SNES by then.  MM6 is solid, but only in general mechanics that carried between the games.  The additional stuff that they did, you're right, it panders between just being stressful and outright sucking.  I hated those paths and trying to find them, and really I just didn't bother, until I saw maybe years later with some visual online guide (or at least a gamefaq) there was some point to even put up with it, which really more so detracted from the fun.  I've been able to take out MM games over the years with work, they're hard, not nasty, just not average or easy, but MM6 because of its problems coupled being hard with also being aggravating so I rarely touch it.

MM2-4 is where I liked the franchise most, but my argument earlier stands why the 2nd really stood out, even if it did lack specifically rush doggie or the slide.  I never really care if he did a slide or not, but the fout legged baf of tools in one, instead of 2's tool platforms was an obvious smart upgrade.  And with 5 it got a bit long in the tooth, and I do agree Beat (and I'm not big on Eddie either) just seems lame, as did the letters, it was busy work in an already busy game.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree I don't think the letter hunting, eddie or beat add anything to the game. While using an E-tank is a shameful action for any Mega Man player, using Beat is just something that feels dirty to even consider.
And the branching paths in MM6 definitely feel misplaced. The Mega Man X series did all of that better, and even in those games it is essentially superfluous busywork.

On the other hand, I don't think they detract from the games either. Just like you can ignore E-tanks, you can very easily ignore the optional boss locations in MM6, and even though I never use Beat, I try to pick up the letters just as a fun optional challenge, but don't fret over missing one.

Honestly the only added feature that I think sullies the games somewhat is the charge shot, and I feel the same way about it in the X games, Zero games, and the GB ones especially. It invites holding down the shot button at all times while you're not actively firing, and that's both uncomfortable and makes an annoying noise. I prefer just shooting really fast at enemies with zero to no invincibility frames. Fortunately, 4, the game that introduces that, still doesn't force you to use it as heavily, and I do think it still works well for boss fights where it never paid off to just wail on them anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11>2>4>1>5>6>3>9>10>7 (never played 8 enough to rank it).

I love 11 after putting some time into it. The stages can be a touch long and the boss fights can initially be a little tedious with the transformations but overall I love the flow of the game. The gear system is awesome and really lets you customize how you play.

1-6 are pretty much all in the same boat for me give or take. I like all of them for slightly different reasons but none of them stand out as significantly better/worse than others for me.

9-10 were forgettable. Maybe a little too faithful to MM2 and not really bringing much new to the table. I did like some of the weapons though like Gravity Bomb. Played through them a few times and have no desire to go back to them.

I don't really like 7. Sprites are too big, game is too long, tons of slow down, and didn't care for the story. I just found it so inferior to Mega Man X as well which I played before 7.

 

 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mega

1 hour ago, Andy_Bogomil said:

11>2>4>1>5>6>3>9>10>7 (never played 8 enough to rank it).

I love 11 after putting some time into it. The stages can be a touch long and the boss fights can initially be a little tedious with the transformations but overall I love the flow of the game. The gear system is awesome and really lets you customize how you play.

1-6 are pretty much all in the same boat for me give or take. I like all of them for slightly different reasons but none of them stand out as significantly better/worse than others for me.

9-10 were forgettable. Maybe a little too faithful to MM2 and not really bringing much new to the table. I did like some of the weapons though like Gravity Bomb. Played through them a few times and have no desire to go back to them.

I don't really like 7. Sprites are too big, game is too long, tons of slow down, and didn't care for the story. I just found it so inferior to Mega Man X as well which I played before 7.

 

 

 

 

I liked mega man 7 for itself, I played it years after getting the others and X. It's definitely not great compared to the traditional series, but it's worth a play.

Mega man 8 though, it sucks balls. My brother and I played it and we both hated everything about it. I never completed the game, have no need to. I mean, jump jump, slide, slide. No thanks annoying audio and shitty stage, I think I'll instead power power off off and then throw the damned disk out the window!

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I probably need to replay Mega Man 8, because I remember liking it quite a bit, but it's been a while. It's a lot "milder" than traditional Mega Man games, but compared to both MM7 and Rockman & Forte I don't remember being bothered by a constantly frustrating stop-and-go flow that just keeps ruining any kind of momentum you might have got going.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/22/2020 at 5:33 AM, DefaultGen said:

2 because 3 is laggy, bloated with rehash MM2 stuff, and generally overrated AF and like every poser I’ve not played 4-6.

For shame. You should just stop calling yourself a collector and a gamer.

...

Now excuse me while I ignore every single sports title ever made that isn’t something like Mario Golf, NBA Jam, or NFL Blitz.

 

Also, I voted 3. Though I think I could have also say any one of them except 1.

Whichever one introduced the “slide” mechanic is probably best.

but I love 6 since it included fan made characters outside of Japan, and Centaurman is awesome. As GameDave would say, he’s Half Horse, Half Man, Half Robot.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...