Mega Man Anniversary Collection

Written by Ryan Genno  on April 07, 2005

Review: Does this mean its ok to give a Mega Man game for an anniversary gift now?

Tweet

Comments

It's a dream come true for old school gaming fans! Imagine this: instead of digging up some dirty old consoles and paying big bucks on eBay for the games themselves (and believe me, they can be pretty expensive), Capcom has put together eight games (plus two hidden) in the Mega Man series in one set complete with bonus extras. Lucky GameCube and Playstation2 owners already got a chance to play this cool collection of 2D action platformers, and now Xbox gamers finally get their shot - and we even get a few new things as well. Sure, these games may be on the old side, but look what you are getting here!

In Mega Man Anniversary Collection you get all six of the Nintendo Entertainment System games, Mega Man 7 from the Super Nintendo, and Mega Man 8 from the Playstation (it was also released on the Sega Saturn but who really cares, eh?). All the games are run and gun pure action games where you control the powerful little blue robot called Mega Man. What makes these Mega Man games so popular is that you have the option to pick the stage, and once you defeat the robot guardian you can steal their weapons and use them in future battles.

If you are not super old like me here is a breakdown of the games here: in the very first game, Mega Man must stop six of Dr. Light's robots that have gone berserk and are taking over the city. Although it sucks that Mega Man doesn't have all the abilities found in the sequels, and the graphics remind unchanged from the 8-bit era (in other words they sure suck compared to something like Splinter Cell), Mega Man 1 is a well crafted adventure with unforgettable characters and challenging game play. The first time I played this in 1987 I knew it was going to be a hit.

In the highly anticipated sequel Mega Man 2, the evil Dr. Wily created 8 of his own robots to conquer the world. The graphics have been beefed up (again don't expect to be too impressed) and Capcom got rid of the Score system, so they focus more on the action. Mega Man 2 is a bit on the easy side, but the game is still one of the best in the series.

Mega Man 3 still follows the basic formula of the last games; you must fight off 8 robots and get their weapons blah blah blah. The big difference now is you have a new robo dog called Rush to help you out, plus Mega Man can do a useful slide move too. The first three games in the collection are definitely classics, unfortunately the sequels Mega Man's 4, 5 and 6 were just more of the same, and even the story lines seem way too similar (i.e. robots sent by an evil mastermind who is not Dr. Wily but in the end it is just Dr. Wily anyway). Mega Man 7 and 8 are major improvements over the tired NES titles thanks to longer stages and new bolt power up system, plus since they are done on 16 and 32-bit consoles they look way better.

Although you can play Mega Man 1 thru 8 right off the bat, you still have to unlock the other two Arcade only games. So are they worth unlocking? What makes these two odd games so unique is that you are only fighting the boss characters, plus you can even have a friend join in because both games are two-player compatible. The games are way too short compared to the other titles on here, but it was cool to see the graphical and sound upgrades of old characters and their stages.

Games are not the only things you can unlock here. You can see cool stuff like bonus artwork, hear exclusive music, and you can even watch an anime episode of Mega Man NT Warrior just by beating certain bosses or collecting ideas in the games. There is also another thing that MMAC can do that your older NES carts could not. The game will now save your data simply after finishing a stage so you can forget about writing down any annoying passwords this time.

The graphics in MMAC are sure a mixed bag. All the NES games may have looked fine for the day, but they still look like something your cat coughed up! Mega Man 8 and the two Arcade games are very colourful and all but newer 2D games like Alien Hominid blow it out of the water. Overall it's a thumbs down for the visuals in the collection. The music and sound effects are also not changed and the cute robotic stuff won't be for everyone, but you can edit some (but not all) of the games in Navi mode, so the games become easier and background music sounds much better.