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Classic Review Edition
Page 3
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There were only 2 copies available when I rented Mega Man 64. And the video rental store had only bought 2 copies for rental purposes. I was very surprised at this -- but luckily, there was still me, who decided to romp in there and rent a copy! (I had a gift certificate, and it was going to expire on December 31, 2003! I HAD to use it!)
Basically, the pirates have come to Kattelox Island, and it's up to Mega Man Voulnut and his 14-year-old cute sidekick Roll to save the island. The pirates are after a legendary treasure; meanwhile, Mega Man and Roll are here only because they crashlanded on the island. What a scoop!
I had later found out that this game was a direct port of Mega Man Legends for the PlayStation. Way to go, Capcom. Nonetheless, since I have never played Mega Man Legends, I still found myself making my way through the opening of the game, and enjoying it! I've seen other sites bash the original Legends game, but I still found it quite entertaining. For the first time ever, I was able to move Mega Man around in a non-linear path! That was cool. Plus he (as well as a surprising number of characters) actually talked (I'm not saying it was the best voice acting in the world -- it was kinda fuzzy at times -- but it was certainly not the worst voice acting in the world either). This game is definitely the one with the most voice speech in it. Whoa...shouldn't I be dividing this up in my usual paragraph-per-category manner?
The graphics are pretty cool, even if they ARE 3+ years old. The explosions are different than any gaming explosion I have ever witnessed. One complaint that I have (and this may be true to the PlayStation version as well) is that the talking sounds sometimes do not match up when the mouths move. Heck, sometimes mouths don't even move when you hear talking. Usually there are captions to keep your mind off of this though....except for certain scenes. Also, whether this relates to graphics or not I cannot say, but there is, in the downtown centre, a small area where, in the beginning of the game, you can check out an arcade machine which apparently is Mega Man 64. However, I went back later to check it out, and it said that it was Mega Man Legends! GASP in fear!
Sometimes there is music, sometimes you hear the rustling of birds in trees, and sometimes you hear nothing but your funny-sounding footsteps. Whatever, the case is, this game has a pretty hollow musical soundtrack. As for sounds themselves, though you may get annoyed by your footsteps after a while, everything else is pretty cool. It's fun listening to Barrell Casket (aka Gramps) talk, because you know whatever comes out of his mouth sounds hilarious. In fact, he often says "Ha-ha-ha-ha" too (probably because he can hear himself talk).
Play control is where this game loses its touch. Some people may never get used to the control scheme. I managed to gain consciousness of it after a while. But the indescribable way that you walk just made me think of what Capcom programmers were doing at the time. Most likely sleeping on the keyboard.
As for the fun factor, I had a lot of fun with this game -- it's something that a) makes you think, and b) is easy to get into. I enjoyed running around town, talking to the people. I felt a sense of responsibility as I destroyed many Reaverbots. I thought Roll was hot stuff. It's the many things like this that make life worth living, and this game worth a try (if you don't already own Mega Man Legends, which, once again, this is a port of).
Anyway, to sum this whole review up in a single short paragraph (which basically defeats the purpose of reading the other stuff), if you already have played Mega Man Legends and didn't like it (or if you already own it and like/dislike it), don't buy this game. If you haven't experienced the craze, do so. Otherwise, you'll miss out on one of the most interesting games on the console yet.
FINAL SCORE: 7.6/10 |
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UPDATED COMMENTARY:
I don't even care whether or not this is just a port of Mega Man Legends: I still think it's a pretty cool game. Okay, so the game still looks like a 32-bit PlayStation game, and the voice samples became a bit fuzzy because of limited cartridge space, but that doesn't completely detract from the sheer charisma this game emits. Plus I feel that the controls in the N64 version are superior to those of the PlayStation version, so it has that going for it. And let's not forget that this is the ONLY Mega Man title for the N64, which is downright disappointing. But MML/MM64 is so great, I own both copies! Yessah!
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My definition of an excellent game is "any game that requires personal restraint from playing". One such game is also, in my humble opinion, one of the best games to hit the Game Boy Advance so far. I am referring to Megaman Battle Network. If you've been keeping close tabs on the site, you'll know that I often favor the games within the Mega Man universe over most others. However, this game is quite a superb example of why I WOULD support this magnificent Capcom series.
If I had to classify this game into solely one category, it would probably fall under the "RPG" category. Many of the elements of an RPG are here: levels, random battles, lots of collectible items, and a deep storyline. In this game, you play not one, but two roles. First, you play as Lan, the computer-elite fifth grader who is one of the game's main forces against the villains. Secondly, you play NOT as the Mega Man we know and love, but as Lan's net navigator cyberfriend Mega Man.EXE. Together, these characters have the power to overcome any obstacles that gets in their way.
As the story goes, you are placed in a world where the internet plays an integral role in everyday life. Everyone carries a PET (PErsonal Terminal), which is what the manual calls an "advanced personal digital assistant". This PET stores an immense amount of data. Every PET also has its own personality program (a "Net Navi") which will allow you to communicate in more ways with the PET -- including speech! Lan's particular PET, in conjunction with the Net Navi, is Mega Man.EXE! However, all is not well in this new network age. An organization known as "WWW" (aka the World Three), which consists of computer hackers and virus programmers, is performing constant network crimes, and it's up to Lan and his pal Mega Man.EXE to save the networked world from the havoc of the World Three! There's also a lot of mumbo-jumbo about Battle Chips and Virus Attacks and such, but you'll have to play the game to get THAT experience. All you need to do is find a place to "jack-in", and send Mega Man.EXE to the rescue!
If you check out some of the backgrounds in the cyberworld parts of this game, you'll think that you've been influenced by some wonderous drug. Sometimes you'll see strange letter e's floating around, or sometimes it's just weird shapes that some cola-hyped programming genius plugged in. Other than that, the game sets a pseudo-3D kind of stage where you're walking on a plain similar to that of Super Mario RPG. However, this is cooler.
I think that the majority of the music was well-composed, but some of the tunes, I will openly admit, are corny. The town tune is a bit low on technoficiency. That's not a word, but hey, that's not my problem. Nevertheless, the corned-up score fits the mood of the city and the goings-on in the game just fine.
Not much else to say, except that you must BUY THIS GAME! I can say that this is the best Game Boy game I have played to date. Even though it's an RPG, anyone can enjoy this. Whether you're an avid Mega Man fan, whether you're an RPG addict, or whether you just don't have a clue, everybody can pick up this game and enjoy it. (You may need a Game Boy Advance first though.) I strongly STRONGLY recommend this, so go for it. Fight, Mega Man.EXE, for everlasting peace!
FINAL SCORE: 9.8/10 |
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UPDATED COMMENTARY:
The score given here is a bit high, but Megaman Battle Network is still a high-quality game. It's too bad that Capcom milked the concept to the maximum six times on the Game Boy Advance... and then into a second series (Megaman Star Force) on the Nintendo DS. In retrospect, I find it a bit more difficult to call it a straight RPG. Action-RPG, maybe. But it sure feels like an RPG with all the leveling-up that needs to be done. But for the true Mega Man RPG, look no further than "Mega Man X: Command Mission". And while I'm also thinking about it, wouldn't it be cool to have a Net Navi? I'd have SoyMan!
Check out our more recent and thorough review of Megaman Battle Network! |
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Capcom has gone a long way with its Mega Man series. Mega Man has graced its presence upon the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Gear, PlayStation, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, and even the PC. Yet, occasionally we forget the little games in the series that failed to make a large impact in the gaming society. One such game appeared in Japanese arcades in 1995, and became a rare game to find in North America. This game is the not-so-legendary Mega Man: The Power Battle.
It is true that only a small amount of copies of Mega Man: The Power Battle were bought and shipped to American shores, yet don't think it is impossible to find. The game is mainly a one-on-one (or, if you have a partner with some coins on hand, two-on-one) battle game in which you battle six robot masters from older Mega Man games, and then go after a mini-boss, and finally after Dr. Wily himself. When you play the game, you (and a second player) can choose to play as either Mega Man, Proto Man, or Bass. You also choose which "series" you'd like to play through. The series you choose will affect the game -- Selecting "1-2" will allow you to fight robot masters from Mega Man 1 and 2; "3-6" will get you bosses from Mega Man 3-6 and "7"...speaks for itself. At the end of the six battles, you will get either the Rock Monster or a Giant Pumpkin to fight, depending on which series you chose. After a heavy battle like that, you'd hope and pray that the game is over...but you are shot straight into the final showdown with the master of ceremonies...Dr. Wily! Use whatever weapons you wish, that you think do the most damage and cross our fingers (or toes if the fingers are busy) that you will destroy his maniacal machine before it destroys you! The boss battles in this game may seem hard, but if you have the right weapon, nothing is as hard as it seems...
The game is chock-full of delectable and colourful graphics. The sprites themselves look as if they were pulled from Mega Man 7, but with an extra bit of detail, and there are many frames of action involved in each character so you don't think they're too choppy. The backgrounds, you may notice, are just as well done as the sprites -- the screenshots speak a thousand words. Excellently-plastered backgrounds fit each robot master's natural setting almost perfectly. The cold robots, for example, find themselves in an area with plenty of ice and even a giant animated whale in the background. A superlative display of animations can show you that Capcom went over the top in this category.
Most of the music in this game is a reflection of past tunes, but this is not a bad thing. This apparent rehashing of tunes does its best to bring in da nostalgia, bring in da funk. The composers have brought the musical scores up to par with today's video game sound capabilities and now they really bring in da noise, bring in da funk. Sound effects also have this effect on players, as the sound effects in this game are reasonably close to what the battle would sound like if it was really happening in your backyard.
If you are fortunate enough to live in a big city, you may be able to find this game in a really large arcade if you are very very lucky. Yet most likely, you may have to live with having to cry in your pillow at night when you find out that this game is not available to suck in your coins. It's a shame too -- this is one Mega Man game that could've really caught on. It's like a "Street Fighter goes techno" type of game, and that certainly could've caught the eye of all who walked by it. Mega Man: The Power Battle is a top-notch addition to any arcade...it's worth every glance it gets.
FINAL SCORE: 8.2/10 |
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UPDATED COMMENTARY:
Mega Man: The Power Battle isn't that great of a game, but it's certainly something to pass the time and suck up quarters. You're probably not going to be able to find this in your local arcade unless you're very lucky. You'll be even luckier if you still have a local arcade that's worth your journey though. Thankfully this has been made available on the Mega Man Anniversary Collection (the often-praised anthology). Then you too can be playing as Proto Man to take down Robot Masters from various Mega Man games for less of an apparent reason than ever before! |
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The Mega Man series has been continuing its saga since 1987. It has graced many systems, such as NES, SNES, and PlayStation. But now our blue bomber buddy has entered the world of handheld 8-bit color that is Game Boy Color. And it is worth all the money that you will shell out for it.
The game is based off the SNES X games. In fact, the first stage of the game IS a shrunken version of the opening stage of Mega Man X. The Mavericks (robot masters) are rehashes of SNES bosses (ie. Chill Penguin, Flame Stag, etc.). But who knows; maybe they've been resurrected for an encore quest to destroy Mega Man X.
Graphics are once-again shrunken X-game standard fare. However, on a Game Boy Color system, it will indeed dazzle the eye. The FMV sequences are well-rendered in terms of not only the sprites, but the large close-ups of the characters, although some will say they are a little too Japanese-anime style. Que sera sera.
As for sound, once again we return to the SNES X series. The tunes are versions of the original stage tunes which have been remixed for an 8-bit sound speaker. Sound effects are not in large quantities, but perhaps they would've overcome the music. Music is funky, but the tunes probably won't make you get up dance. You probably have trouble hearing it really well anyway.
I found myself without control flaw! I was able to do what I wanted to do when I pressed the button! A lot of games seem to have certain play control bugs in them that annoy some people to the full extent (Star Tropics, anyone?). But hey, no complaints, no worries.
Finally, did I find myself having fun, or throwing the damn system halfway to Timbuktu? Well...seeing as how I have a bad throwing arm, I found myself having a great time. Mega Man games always seem to peak my interest, and this is no exception! You'll have a good time when you find yourself immersed in the glorious nature of the game itself, but you probably will not find it as easy as you might be expecting.
All in all, when the game is featured in a superstore near YOU, be sure to either purchase or, if you don't trust my word, rent it as soon as you can, because this game will keep your thumb on the button and your heart a-racin'! Fight, Mega Man, for everlasting pocket peace!
FINAL SCORE: 9.0/10 |
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UPDATED COMMENTARY:
To conclude this seemingly endless barrage of Mega Man games, we have a miniature version of Mega Man X. Well, aside from what is already presented in this cheesily-written review, I'd just like to mention that this is a fairly faithful pocket edition of our futuristic hero. It's not perfect, mind you, but it does the job for that easy X-fix on the go. Of course, I would have preferred more originality, but if we didn't get it from those five GB Mega Man titles, you shouldn't expect it from this.
Check out our more recent and thorough review of Mega Man Xtreme! |
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