Mega Man has been one of my favorite platformer series. However, I wanted to come back to the beginning and see if the first entry still held up as one of the platforming giants of the 80s.
Will it be as good as I remembered, or will I find it to be a frustrating mess. Let’s Press Start and find out!
Mega Man: Story
As an early NES game, Mega Man’s story is pretty simple. A scientist known as Dr. Light creates 8 robots known as robot masters to help humanity.
A colleague of Light’s, known as Dr Wily. reprograms 6 of the 8 to use their power to take over the world, while leaving behind the 2 helper robots Rock and Roll.
Rock offers to be converted into a Super Fighting Robot to combat the threat of Dr. Wily, creating Mega Man.
As I stated, the story is as simple as NES games could be. None of this is not covered in the game itself, but through supplementary material like the manual and different adaptations.
Mega Man: Gameplay
The gameplay is just as simple as the story. The game follows a basic platformer structure. You can run, jump, and shoot using the Mega Buster.
The Image above showing the robot masters is the level select screen, which allows you to choose any of the 6 Robot Masters to fight first.
The stages involve enemies that, while sometimes seeming random, are placed in a way to teach the player how they work.
If you’re playing this for the first time, My advice is to take your time. Most of the level design is against speeding past, which can lead to unnecessary deaths.
Luckily, there is a simple continue feature, so getting a game over is less punishing than other NES games of the time.
Once you make it through the stage, Rock will encounter the robot master. When I revisit this game, I go with Cut Man first, as he is stunned easily with the standard pellets.
Which Robot Master do you start with?
- Cut Man
- Elec Man
- Ice Man
- Fire Man
When you defeat a boss, Rock gains a power based on their weapon. These weapons add a Rock-Paper-Scissors element to the game, as each Robot Master is weak to a specific weapon.
Each boss weapon has a limited ammo pool, so I find it best to save them for certain occasions, such as the bosses. While you can get ammo from defeated enemies, you need to equip the specific weapon to charge it.
Wily Stage 1
When all 6 Robot Masters are defeated, the Wily Stages are unlocked. These involve Rock’s charge against Wily's home base. As with the regular stages, the Wily Stages end with a specific boss, which is where the difficulty spikes the most.
One section that really annoys me is this one room in Wily Stage 1. In Elec Man’s Stage there is a hidden item that can only be grabbed using Guts Arm or Elec Beam.
The item gives you the Magnet Beam, which allows Mega Man to create platforms. Despite seeming optional, you need the Beam to make it through this one section.
If you don’t have it, your only option is to Game Over and go back to the stage select. At least there are some nearby spikes to Game Over quickly.
The boss of Wily Stage 1 is the Yellow Devil, which is considered to be one of the hardest bosses in the game. It comes into the room in segments, each of which can hurt Mega Man.
The only part of the Yellow Devil that can take damage is the eye, which only forms to attack once all segments are combined.
As famous as the Yellow Devil is, there is one trick that is just as known for making him pathetic to beat.
During any part of the game, you can press the Select button to pause. In the paused state, the invincibility frames of almost every boss are not paused, which allows you to quickly unpause, deal damage, and then pause again to wait out their invincibility. Shots from the Mega Buster disappear on contact, but boss weapons hit every frame they can.
When using this trick, the Yellow Devil goes from one of the hardest bosses in video game history, to this…
Wily Stage 2
Wily Stage 2 introduces a staple of the Mega Man series, boss rematches. In the middle of the stage, Cut Man and Elec Man are part of the defenses.
The Wily Stages also have the gimmick of not refilling your weapon energy, which can leave you without a boss’s weakness.
The boss of Wily Stage 2 is interesting. Using a machine, Wily copies Mega Man’s abilities, creating the Copy Robot.
Any ability you have equipped, Copy Robot will use against you. You use Fire Storm, starts shooting fire. You use Guts Arm, He runs around looking for blocks.
Despite this cool concept, He goes down quickly thanks to the pause glitch.
Wily Stage 3
Wily Stage 3 consists of basically just large hallways with enemies. There are no traps to catch you off guard, so the only threat is minor damage.
Once you make it through the halls, Rock reaches the bubble machine, CWU-01P.
When you take out the machine, a faster one takes its place. The 4 blocks are used by Guts Man’s weapon, and defeat a machine in one hit.
However, the counter is that you need the blocks to dodge the faster machines, which can leave you defenseless if you used them already.
If you die and come back after using the blocks, they don’t respawn. This means if you use the blocks and die, you have to Game Over and start from the beginning of Wily Stage 3.
Wily Stage 4
Wily Stage 4 consists of the rest of the Boss Rush. Bomb Man, Fire Man, Ice Man, and Guts Man all block Rock’s path to Wily.
However, they fall as they did before. Once you beat Guts Man, all you are left with is the Wily Machine.
While it can be tricky to hit, the pause glitch obliterates the scales in Rock’s favor. Once it goes down, Cue the victory fanfare.
While Rock races home back to Dr. Light, the game ends with this phrase.
“Mega Man has ended the evil domination of Dr. Wily and restored the world to peace. However, the never ending battle continues until all destructive forces are defeated...”
Impact
Mega Man was first released in 1987 for the NES by Capcom, who wanted a non-arcade based mascot. While it had not been a major success for Capcom, only selling around 30 thousand copies, the higher ups still allowed the team to develop a sequel on their own time.
Mega Man 2 would go on to be a smash hit, which created the series we now know today, but that is a title for another day.
Overall Thoughts on Mega Man
Mega Man is not even close to being the peak of the franchise. However, I do have to give it credit for being the inspiration of every subsequent appearance of the Blue Bomber.
We wouldn’t have gotten the awesome levels, creative RPG Elements, or the beautiful story of fighting in what you believe in, if we didn’t have the classic that inspired them all.
Do you have any fond memories of playing this title? Anything I missed that you would like to be known? Let us know down below in the comments.
If you want to play through the first 6 Mega Man games for yourself, Mega Man Legacy Collection is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One/Series X, PlayStation 4/5, and Steam.
Fight, For Everlasting Peace!
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