Opinions on the Mega Man series.
If you've played one Mega Man, you've played them all. At least, that's my perspective on my all-time favorite game series, and it's one that's helped me to appreciate Capcom's seemingly endless supply of sequels and spinoffs. People who cite Mega Man 2 or 3 as the pinnacle of the series often deride the later games as uninspired and derivative, regarding novelty as one of Mega Man's highest virtues. As a latecomer to the party who started with Mega Man 4, I can tell you that the whole idea of Mega Man is novel enough for me.
A special weapon from every boss? A choice about what stage to visit next? Fluid motion and responsive controls? Varied challenges that are incredibly tough, but actually fair? A rematch against all the bosses, and a final boss that isn't really a final boss? Throw in a catchy soundtrack, detailed graphics, and memorable character designs, and you've got pretty much the only game I'd ever want to play. Looking at the series as a whole—including spinoff series such as Mega Man X, Mega Man Legends, Mega Man Battle Network, and so on—these characteristics define what it means to be a Mega Man game. There's plenty of innovation to be found as well, but novelty is more often a nicety than a necessity.
As long as there are new locations, new challenges, new weapons, and new music, I'm generally happy to see a new game refine and maintain the elements that made previous installments good—no need to reinvent the Wheel Cutter every time. At the same time, I don't mind a jolt of radical change every now and again as long as the whole thing works. I've already established that I like Mega Man—you don't have to try too hard to get me to like a sequel or spinoff...but there's a lot you can do to mess it up. It's often the flaws, more than the merits, that shape my opinion of a Mega Man game.
That being said, here's my take on the greater Mega Man series, assigning point values to each of the categories I can describe with some measure of objectivity (with point values being relative to the series, and not video games in general). My scale runs from +2 (exceptional) to -2 (outright bad), with +0 being completely and acceptably average. In terms of overall quality, I think the total score for each game does a good job of expressing approximately where each game stands; but, keeping in mind that it's the flaws that tend to sway me most, and that I can't be entirely objective all the time, you'll probably get a better sense of which games I like most and least by the harshness of my criticisms and the blatant subjectivity of my praise.
In this section:
- Mega Man Classic
- Mega Man Sequel Series
- Mega Man Spinoff Series
A special weapon from every boss? A choice about what stage to visit next? Fluid motion and responsive controls? Varied challenges that are incredibly tough, but actually fair? A rematch against all the bosses, and a final boss that isn't really a final boss? Throw in a catchy soundtrack, detailed graphics, and memorable character designs, and you've got pretty much the only game I'd ever want to play. Looking at the series as a whole—including spinoff series such as Mega Man X, Mega Man Legends, Mega Man Battle Network, and so on—these characteristics define what it means to be a Mega Man game. There's plenty of innovation to be found as well, but novelty is more often a nicety than a necessity.
As long as there are new locations, new challenges, new weapons, and new music, I'm generally happy to see a new game refine and maintain the elements that made previous installments good—no need to reinvent the Wheel Cutter every time. At the same time, I don't mind a jolt of radical change every now and again as long as the whole thing works. I've already established that I like Mega Man—you don't have to try too hard to get me to like a sequel or spinoff...but there's a lot you can do to mess it up. It's often the flaws, more than the merits, that shape my opinion of a Mega Man game.
That being said, here's my take on the greater Mega Man series, assigning point values to each of the categories I can describe with some measure of objectivity (with point values being relative to the series, and not video games in general). My scale runs from +2 (exceptional) to -2 (outright bad), with +0 being completely and acceptably average. In terms of overall quality, I think the total score for each game does a good job of expressing approximately where each game stands; but, keeping in mind that it's the flaws that tend to sway me most, and that I can't be entirely objective all the time, you'll probably get a better sense of which games I like most and least by the harshness of my criticisms and the blatant subjectivity of my praise.
In this section:
- Mega Man Classic
- Mega Man Sequel Series
- Mega Man Spinoff Series
