Board 8 > I have been playing Mega Man for the first time

(+) Yeah! (+)

As a European child of the '90s, I had never heard of Mega Man before seeing him in a Character Battle poll here one day. I didn't grow up on the series and only picked up bits and pieces of info over the years like Dr Wily's name, cool music, and a youtube rap on MM2 I watched ages ago. On the board's recommendation, I decided to finally buy the Legacy Collection and give the series a go recently. I've posted my thoughts in SHINE's discord channel but decided to collate them here in case anyone is interested.

Mega Man 1
This game is all that I feared Mega Man would be. I'm not good at action games and I generally find the NES to be super dated, so this game's unforgiving nature and slippery controls were not a great intro to the series. This is the only game where I used save states to get ahead (I made checkpoints outside of the Wily boss rooms). But it wasn't all bad, the core loop is fun and it's impressive how much of the series structure they had nailed down from the getgo.
Best level: Elec Man
Best weapon: Fire Storm
Worst moment: The air platforming section in Ice Man's level.
Best music: Cut Man

Mega Man 2
Phew, this one was more my speed. I played on Normal mode first and then on difficult, the much more user friendly levels were very appreciated. I knew the most about this one going in, and how it's apparently the best in the series. I don't know if I'd go that far, but it's a big improvement over the first game with not nearly as much jank. Air Man was not as hard to beat as the internet had led me to believe. The Wily levels were a bit much though, still.
Best level: Hm... maybe Flash? None of them particularly stand out, most are solid.
Best weapon: Metal Blades by default, why are they so OP?
Worst moment: Attempting Quick Man's level without the Flash weapon.
Best music: Wily Stage 1 (HM Air Man)

Mega Man 3
Ok they're really into the swing of it now, I might prefer this one to 2. I really like the inventiveness of the robots and weapons here, and the slide is such a nice addition. It is strange that the game decides it has a plot 3/4 of the way through, and the first cutscene we get talks about names and details that I have absolutely no knowledge of. Wily was working with us?? Seeing the bonus 4 levels after beating the 8 robot masters was a great moment. I really like the idea of going back through a slightly twisted version of the levels and fighting the MM2 bots again, but they may have made the Doc robots a little too tough here. After that, the Wily stages are a cakewalk.
Best level: Spark Man
Best weapon: Hard Knuckle
Worst moment: Doc Quick Man
Best music: Gemini Man or Wily Stage 2

Mega Man 4
The Robot Master levels are easily the hardest out of any in the collection (bar 1's jank). Fortunately, this game lets you replay levels and lets you keep Energy Tanks on game over, so it evens out. It also introduces a charge to the Mega Buster, as well as optional paths in levels. I will say I was disappointed they brought Wily back in the end, I was liking Cossack for a change and the lategame twist cements that Wily will never not show up in these games now. I dunno if this is a hot take but I'm not a big fan of Wily or his levels, they don't have strong theming and kinda feel like an afterthought compared to the pre-Wily fortresses of 4-6. I like the Robot Master rematches, though.
Best level: Ring Man
Best weapon: Dust Crusher? I didn't really use any of them.
Worst moment: The falling rocks in Drill Man's stage, I could never figure out how these work.
Best music: Dive Man

Mega Man 5
You know when a game clicks with you right from the word go? That's MM5 for me. Maybe it's because of the massive graphical upgrade, those backgrounds are beautiful (it's hard to believe this is on the same console as MM1). Maybe it's because of the really neat level theming all over the place. ...Or maybe it's because this is the easiest game of the 6 >_> This is the only one where I beat all Robot Masters with the Mega Buster, and without using any Energy Tanks. I groaned realising we had a vehicle level, but in the end I even liked that one! I really liked the regular levels in this, though again the game drops off at the end with the Wily levels.
Best level: Gyro Man
Best weapon: Beat. It's an attack bird!! Shout-out to 'N Bomb' for making me laugh out loud.
Worst moment: The falling crystals in Crystal Man's stage. Grinds things to a halt!
Best music: This OST felt much more chill than the others. I'll give it to Wave Man or Dark Man.

Mega Man 6
This is a strange one. If this game was the first I'd played in the series, I'd love it! And indeed I had a lot of fun, all the mechanics are there and everything is solid and polished. I just felt like I'd seen it all before. We have 4 Robot Masters who are slight iterations on ones we've already had, 3 that are just a weapon dude, and then randomly a time stopping Centaur. It's all fine, but they had clearly run out of ideas by this point. I like the new Jet Mega Man-Rush hybrid, but the power suit doesn't seem well suited for this kind of game.
Best level: Yamato Man
Best weapon: Wind Storm
Worst moment: Mr X? Really? I was betting on Roll or Dr Light being this game's fake final boss before Wily.
Best music: Plant Man, but HM to the Wily Battle for making things feel way more epic than they had any right to be.

And there we go. I have 7-10 in the second Legacy Collection but might wait a bit before playing those, I don't want to get burned out. I am now somewhat of a Mega Man fan, hooray! I don't feel like I've played each of them enough to give a solid ranking, but feel free to give yours on anything, I'm eager to hear any kind of Mega Man discussion.

9 > 2 > 3 > 10 > 7 > 5 > 4 > 6 > 1 > 8

Something like that

andylt posted...

I've posted my thoughts in SHINE's discord channel

finally I am free

until he plays the next one

4 > 2 > 6 > 3 > 5GB > 8 > 10 > 1 > 4GB > 11 > 7 > 9 > 5 > 2GB > &Bass > 3GB > 1GB

is how im feeling atm

4 > 3 > 9 > 10 > 2 > Rest

What the heck is with the 4 fans I've been seeing lately.

3 > 2 > 9 > 5 > 10 > 4 > 1 > 6 > 7 > 8

5 > 9 > 2 > 6 > 10 > 8 > 3 > 7 > 4 > 1

Lopen posted...

What the heck is with the 4 fans I've been seeing lately.

yes it's very weird

The Drill Man rocks in 4 - They fall down when Mega Man gets within a tile. If they hit the ground (or you), they break into a bunch of pieces, forcing Mega Man back (and another to fall). If you shoot the rock before it hits the ground, it gets destroyed before breaking apart, and you can run through before another one falls

It's nice to see whenever a newbie to the series understands how good 5 is

Maybe consider playing 9 and 10 before 7 and 8.

Music is a huge thing for me in video games and nearly every track in 4 is freaking awesome so that's why it's my #1

Dedf1sh posted...

Maybe consider playing 9 and 10 before 7 and 8.

Nah. The whole thing about 9 and 10 is how much later they came out compared to 1-6.

Well my actual opinion would be "don't even play 7/8 and just play 9/10" but that's probably not what he wants to hear.

7 and 8 are the only bad ones. 2 the best. Only one that comes close to X.

Don't skip any games

Until you get to MMX6

Coming in as 7's strongest soldier and saying it's worth playing. Is it different? Yes. I still think it does some neat things, especially with the weapons. There's also some story building that I think is super neat. It's not much because come on, it's a classic MM game, but it's something interesting.

Give it a chance, you might like it.

(8 is just bad imo)

Mega Man and Bass in a collection game when?

Oh um... personal preference

7 > 4 > 2 > 3 > 5 > 6 > 1 > 8

I need to play 9 and 10

2 > 3 > 9 > 5 > 10 > 4 > 6 > 7 > 1 > 8

Mega Man classic games are just a blast. I used to be a 3 fan, but 2 is just so consistently good.

I have them in tiers. All games are good though.
2=3 > 5=6=10 > 7=8=11 > 1 >> 4
Still have not played enough of 9 to make a judgement....only beat a couple levels a long time ago.

Edit - Don't sleep on 11 people lol. It was a fun game.

8 is great, people are just mean

Xtlm posted...

Edit - Don't sleep on 11 people lol. It was a fun game.

For sure. It's not in the collection, but I'd slot it on above 10 on my rankings

8 is fine. Even if it's not one of the best Mega Man games it's still a solid platformer.

11 was fun. I'd put it right before 7, probably.

I couldn't possibly provide a full ranking, but 9 is the best and 2 is the second best and it's not close.

Kenri posted...

I couldn't possibly provide a full ranking, but 9 is the best and 2 is the second best and it's not close.

I would agree that there's a gap after the top two.

3 > 1 > 2 of the ones I've played

I like 7 quite a bit! The only weak robot master (musically, layout, and weapon) is Turbo Man, and the worst part of the game proper is easily how much of a pain in the ass the final battle is.

Flaws and all, though, I like 4 the best. Probably.

8 is still the only one i've played

jump jump

slide slide

SHINE_GET_64 posted...

finally I am free

until he plays the next one

I am sorry, I would've posted about it in playing-games but the Balatro people took over that channel months ago!

TheKnightOfNee posted...

The Drill Man rocks in 4 - They fall down when Mega Man gets within a tile. If they hit the ground (or you), they break into a bunch of pieces, forcing Mega Man back (and another to fall). If you shoot the rock before it hits the ground, it gets destroyed before breaking apart, and you can run through before another one falls

Ah, thanks. I assumed I could ease back and wait until one fell but they kept falling continuously so I gave up and walked through them >_>

Dedf1sh posted...

Well my actual opinion would be "don't even play 7/8 and just play 9/10" but that's probably not what he wants to hear.

I'm gonna try 7 and 8 at least, but if they're awful I may use savestates. I have seen the comedy gold voice acting scene in MM8, I do not want to miss out on more of that!

Leonhart4 posted...

Don't skip any games

Until you get to MMX6

I'm gonna try X but I've been warned off of the later games so I may only get the 1-4 collection there.

X5 and (supposedly) X8 are worth playing. I could not get through X6 and X7 is supposed to be even worse.

X1 through X4 are all pretty great and roughly follow the same, winning formula. X5 takes some wild swings and is generally good. Haven't played anything past that.

7's good! Only 1 and 8 are bad.

Stop after X4 imo. Nobody loves the latter four.

I like X5 quite a bit actually

X8 good game

No X past 4 is worth it

Anyone who isnt aware of them, please check out a band called The Megas. They take stage music from Mega Man games and create rock/metal songs around them. It will often be from the perspective of the Robot Master of the stage from which theyre taking the music. Theyve done a little Castlevania as well.

Since TC likes the MM2 Air Man music, Ill share a link to the song they made based on that:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YtUJeBURzOk&pp=ygUXdGhlIG1lZ2FzIG1vbnN0ZXJvcG9saXM%3D

andylt posted...

Air Man was not as hard to beat as the internet had led me to believe.

You can beat Airman by walking right in front of his wind storms, taking the 8 damage hit when he throws them, then shooting off 10-12 damage before he moves. Repeat until dead.

Airman is a ridiculously easy boss fight. You don't even need to dodge. I may have the precise damages wrong off of memory, but I've never understood how this guy gets any press. The only actually tough Robot Master is Quick Man because his speed makes him unlike almost any other Robot Master in the entire series. He requires perceptual adjustments.

Oh and the nastiest in the series is Slash Man by a mile. Megaman 7 has 7 jokes for robot masters that you can easily clear for no damage, and that guy. When I completed my no-death no-subweapon no-tank run of 7, I took more damage from my two fights with him than I did from every other boss in the game combined.

Mm4 being the hardest robot master stages is bizzare to me. Mm4 is one of the easiest games. 6 is also pretty easy but breakable fun due to the rush adapters. Although in the nes versions u have to watch some few seconds "cutscenes" when you equip them. Thankfully in the anniversary collection (at least on PS2) you can cycle through

andylt posted...

I'm gonna try 7 and 8 at least, but if they're awful I may use savestates. I have seen the comedy gold voice acting scene in MM8, I do not want to miss out on more of that!

I wasn't even talking about them being bad really (I don't know enough about them), but they're SNES/PS games. So if someone specifically likes Mega Man for the NES style (graphics and music) then 7 and 8 will be a big turn-off by default.

I was curious how someone would react to playing the two NES-styled ones (9+10) at the same time as the classic NES ones before jumping to the new-styled ones, because we rarely have a chance to see a new player experience them all at once like this.

VectorAgent posted...

Anyone who isnt aware of them, please check out a band called The Megas. They take stage music from Mega Man games and create rock/metal songs around them. It will often be from the perspective of the Robot Master of the stage from which theyre taking the music. Theyve done a little Castlevania as well.

Thanks for this, I'll check them out properly later!

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

I wasn't even talking about them being bad really (I don't know enough about them), but they're SNES/PS games. So if someone specifically likes Mega Man for the NES style (graphics and music) then 7 and 8 will be a big turn-off by default.

Well I started MM7 shortly before reading this post and uh, your assumption wasn't wrong! Despite it being ostensibly the same kind of thing, I really don't like how the game controls. Mega Man feels very slow and it all feels rather finicky, I dunno. It even looks a bit cheap somehow. At least Roll finally got a line of dialogue 7 games in.

In any case, I'm probs taking a couple weeks off Mega Man as Bloodstained is going off of Game Pass on the 15th and I'm gonna try and plow through that in time! Then I'll go back to 7-10.

7 is the worst of the mainline games, they made it in like six months. The character:screen ratio is fucked up, boss design/balancing is all over the place, and I think most of the music isnt great

I understand 7 has problems, but I dunno, it had this charm to me that I kinda dug.

Oh shoot did I say six months? I meant three

Neat to see someone playing these games for the first time. And yeah 2 really is quite a bit better than 1. I think 1 is actually solid for the time, it starts the fundamentally cool idea of the series of getting new weapons from bosses and clear the stages in any order you want, but it's obviously a formula that many later games do better.

Not 7 though.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

7 is the worst of the mainline games, they made it in like six months. The character:screen ratio is f***ed up, boss design/balancing is all over the place, and I think most of the music isnt great

Yeah this is how I feel too. I can't really think of anything I remember fondly about 7.

I do like 8 though. It's different and I totally get why someone wouldn't care for it (if you don't vibe with the physics or whatever), but I like the larger stages that iterate on themselves and the higher number of checkpoints, and the weapons are powerful and great fun.

2/3/9 > 8/11 > 4/5/10 > 1/6 > 7 is probably my order, but it can swap around depending on my mood.

Definitely play X8 if you play the X games, it's the best of them IMO (aside from one terrible stage). Being able to switch between multiple characters who play very differently is so cool.

andylt posted...

It is strange that the game decides it has a plot 3/4 of the way through, and the first cutscene we get talks about names and details that I have absolutely no knowledge of. Wily was working with us??

This was back when they used to put a bunch of the game's plot in the manual instead of the game itself and expected the player to have read it. The gist of it is that Dr. Light and the allegedly reformed Dr. Wily are collaborating on a "peace-keeping" super robot, Gamma, and they need eight special crystals called Energy Elements to complete it. They sent robot masters to other planets to mine the crystals, but they went berserk because the game needs bosses, so Mega Man gets sent to destroy the berserk robot masters and retrieve the Elements they collected. The rest happens as you see in the game, with Dr. Wily stealing Gamma and the Elements and attempting to complete Gamma by himself to use against Mega Man.

Whoa now, 7 has great music

I def think 8 is a lot better than 7 even though people hate both

Mega Man 7 has an incredible contribution to society in how many sprite comics it gave us, and templates for customized character sprites.