SkyOdin said:

Mega Man X4 is one of my all-time favorites. It was the first Mega Man game I actually owned, rather than just renting or borrowing from a friend, and as a result I played it over and over again. It was great. I still know the game like the back of my hand. I really only have one complaint about the game, though:

Why the heck did they decide to use the voice actor for Mega Man from Mega Man 8 for X?!

The voice just doesn't suit X at all. For some reason, the sound X makes whenever he wall-jumps grates on my nerves like nothing else. Sure, I can tune it out after a while, but I still wish they could have picked a different voice actor. At least they do get a great voice actor for X for three later games.

Also, does anyone actually pick the rapid buster upgrade over the Plasma shot? The Plasma shot is the third best X Buster upgrade in the series, while the Rapid buster is just kinda unimpressive.

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X's voice in MMX4 is very odd, as I do not imagine what should be an adult robot that killed waves of other robots, sounding like a little kid. Heck, it sounded out of place in MM8 too.

Working on the Battle Network Retrospective right now, so will have that up by tomorrow night . Had a lot of fun playing the game and can't wait to share my thoughts on the series with you all!

Awesome updates I'm surprised you found 4 to be the hardest of the classic series - I'd peg 7, MM & Bass and probably a MM10 Hard Mode run above it but that's just me.

Seeing those shots of X4 takes me back, I love the sprite work and music in that game so much, I remember upgrading my old PC at the time just so I could play the PC port (which I remember being fairly accurate to the console versions, not sure if that's just nostalgia clouding my judgement though).

The only way OP could be a more perfect archive is it there were release years each title originally came out next to the names.

Great stuff.

spazchicken said:

The only way OP could be a more perfect archive is it there were release years each title originally came out next to the names.

Great stuff.

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Thank you ! Will consider updating the OP with release dates as I cover more games .

Awesome job OP. Does the PS1 versions work on the Vita for the original MM releases? If you don't have a PS3 anymore are they on the Vita PSN store to DL?

CaptainZombie said:

Awesome job OP. Does the PS1 versions work on the Vita for the original MM releases? If you don't have a PS3 anymore are they on the Vita PSN store to DL?

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Yes, the are PS1 Classics and they work great on Vita. Just have the disk speed set to 'Fast' when playing the games on Vita; improves the input lag and makes the game run a lot better.

Hello,

I am doing a bad job apparently with my Mega Man Retrospectives, so putting it on hiatus for the next few months. Would rather focus on series I know like the back of my hand then a franchise I revisited again early this year.

Hope you all understand and have a good weekend.

Just want to thank you all for the kind words for the Retrospective. It was nice making it while I made it, but a lot came up recently and that sour comment in got in the MMX4 thread made me decide to put it on hold for a long time.

I am very sorry about this decision but it is one I'm sticking with. Thank you all for your time and have a great weekend.

I posted in the other thread, but I wanted to reiterate it here: I've been enjoying your retrospective, and I don't think you need to worry about your lack of familiarity. It is perfectly fine to talk about something and show appreciation for it even if you are not an expert on it. So, while I won't stop you from taking the break, I will be looking forward to when you get back to it.

Hello everyone.

Today was.....quite the day for my Mega Man Retrospective :l. I mean, most you saw the X4 thread and how everything went down there! But not that things cooled down, I have clear thoughts on the matter and will do the following for this retrospective going forward.

I am sticking to my guns and not making any more Mega Man Retrospectives for a few more days, but for different reasons. I want more time to go through a few titles (MM Zero, MM Battle Network, Mega Man 5 & 6, Mega Man X5) before making Retrospectives on them to avoid the 'event' that happened today.

But the Retrospective is back on! Just....going to take a bit longer to come back then I expected it. Not to mention college work is pilling up and I have to make that a priority (need to keep up strong grades).....making lesson plans and writing two papers will take quite a bit of time to get done .

I will have two Retrospectives come out this weekend though; one for Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Spyro the Dragon 2: Rypto's Rage. Will hopefully have the upcoming Mega Man threads up in the next few days but will not be as rapid as my MM4 and MMX4 threads (to avoid issues that happened today).

So, Retrospective is back on but needs more time.

RK128 said:

Yes, the are PS1 Classics and they work great on Vita. Just have the disk speed set to 'Fast' when playing the games on Vita; improves the input lag and makes the game run a lot better.

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That's great I am going to try to download them today. Thanks

RK128 said:

Hello everyone.

Today was.....quite the day for my Mega Man Retrospective :l. I mean, most you saw the X4 thread and how everything went down there! But not that things cooled down, I have clear thoughts on the matter and will do the following for this retrospective going forward.

I am sticking to my guns and not making any more Mega Man Retrospectives for a few more days, but for different reasons. I want more time to go through a few titles (MM Zero, MM Battle Network, Mega Man 5 & 6, Mega Man X5) before making Retrospectives on them to avoid the 'event' that happened today.

But the Retrospective is back on! Just....going to take a bit longer to come back then I expected it. Not to mention college work is pilling up and I have to make that a priority (need to keep up strong grades).....making lesson plans and writing two papers will take quite a bit of time to get done .

I will have two Retrospectives come out this weekend though; one for Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Spyro the Dragon 2: Rypto's Rage. Will hopefully have the upcoming Mega Man threads up in the next few days but will not be as rapid as my MM4 and MMX4 threads (to avoid issues that happened today).

So, Retrospective is back on but needs more time.

Click to expand...

That's great news man!

This game for the Mega Man Retrospective is special, as this sub series I had no exposure to at all outside of a spin-off game in its own sub-series. So jumping into this game for the retrospective was a real treat considering its legacy.

Battle Network set completely new ground rules for the Mega Man series but it also smartly took elements from Mega Man Classic and Mega Man Legends in some really clever ways.

Development History:
The team at Capcom wanted to take Mega Man in a new direction for his GBA launch and while we got Mega Man Zero in 2002, this was something completely different. Instead of trying to refine Classic Mega Man in a new way, they looked into Pokemon and other popular handheld role playing games, and put Mega Man into that.



So, what does this mean? The game was going to be a light role playing game with heavy action elements to mirror the Mega Man series. Here is more insight on the games development from Wikipedia:

"Mega Man Battle Network was developed by Capcom Production Studio 2 amidst the success of Nintendo's portable RPG franchise Pokémon. Rather than extend upon the traditional action-platform formula for the Mega Man series as they had done with the 3D Mega Man Legends, Capcom followed Nintendo's example on the latter's then-newest handheld console, the GBA. While creating Battle Network, director Masahiro Yasuma found difficulty in blending action attributes with "the kind of fun you get from a Pokémon game" in order to make it enjoyable, new, and fresh. Yasuma recalled that production was further challenged because no effective precursor of its type had been made before. Producer Keiji Inafune stated that the development team wanted to add a "real world" feel to the Mega Man series by placing the protagonist of Battle Network in a location where the internet is prevalent. With the release of the portable GBA, the team felt that they should target modern gamers, specifically children, as an audience for the new series. The developers thought such a theme would be both successful and relevant because these younger gamers grew up with and utilized such technology on a daily basis. To ensure the game's popularity, Capcom marketed Battle Network alongside an afternoon anime adaptation, emphasized head-to-head matches between players, and provided fans with exclusive content via special events.

Inafune credited himself for redesigning the protagonist Mega Man as MegaMan.EXE for the Battle Network series, though he recounted the character designers were reluctant to hand over the responsibility to him and even altered his illustrations afterwards.The character's initial concept art went through a large number of changes before it was finalized to a much simpler design, so that even very young fans could easily draw it. Yuji Ishihara acted as a primary character artist for the game. Each of the game's boss characters was designed so that their bodies would exude a certain motif; for example, StoneMan.EXE was meant to look like a huge castle made from stone masonry. Some bosses resembled their original Mega Man series counterparts while others were a large departure from these more humanoid appearances. Ishihara explained that the artists chose size and shape variety among the characters to "provide a little bit of surprise and excitement" to fans familiar with their classic forms."

All this information suggests that Mega Man jumping into the world of the Internet was the most logical leap for the series. I agree, considering Mega Man has always showed different assets of technology across every sub-series, so why not explore the net?

Battle Network is also linked to a lot of media in both west and in Japan. For starters, it got its own anime called Mega Man: NT Warrior airing on the popular Kids WB (alongside Pokemon and Batman) and it started a long series of games across many platforms; GameCube with Network Transmission and even the Wondersawn!



The first game released in March 21st 2001 in Japan and October the same year in the west. The game got high scores and many enjoyed the game going in a different direction compared to past Mega Man games.

Story:
This is a big one considering this is a role playing game after all. So, its basically a more explained version of the Mega Man Classic series, just with the Net being the main setting for battles instead of various stages across the world.

A young boy named Lan (ha) has a PET that houses his Net Navi (digital partner) called Mega Man that his father created. They have battles with Lan's other friends and have a nice calm life. But suddenly, viruses start causing havoc and Mega Man pushes Lan to Jack into the net to see what is going on.



Mega Man takes out Fire Man and learns of a organization called the WWW ran by this universes version of Dr. Wily (with Lan's dad being this universes version of Dr. Light in some respects). Like clock-work, stuff happens to Lan and friends, so he sends Mega Man into the system to take the various viruses out.

What makes this so fun, is that the writing feels like it was pulled out of Mega Man Legends to me. Its likely from that being the most story focused version of Mega Man out their but still, got strong Legends vibes from a lot of Battle Network. The way the characters bounce off each other, how great the characterization of the villains are, and overall the story keeping me invested; it reminded me of the strong story telling from Legends. And I really appreciated that here.

The game even references Legends in Lan's Room!



Mega Man is one of the most adaptable IP around and Battle Network proves that in this regard.

Design:
This also mirrors past Mega Man games heavily. You have the main hub areas to explore as both Lan and Mega Man.EXE that allow you to talk to people for fun dialog, learn more about the world and see how things work. You can also jack-into most things in the world, giving Mega Man freedom to explore various spots for more Zenny (money) and have a few fights to get some chips.



You also have the way upgrading works, and it function like Legends. Instead of just leveling up after every single random battle, you use the Zenny you get to buy 'Power-Up' parts. After buying them, you use them for one of three options; power, charge and speed. Once you use one, Mega Man gets a higher level. This also works for your health as well, with you buying health-upgrade pieces to apply to Mega Man.



Lastly, is the chips themselves. You have different chips that function like the different Pokemon that this game was inspired by. Each chip does unique actions and will cover that in the gameplay portion soon enough. But some chips are the Navi's you fight/befriend and they offer different abilities. For example, this series version of Roll will give you some health while later games have Protoman.EXE or Bass.EXE do an attack for you. You also get Navi summon chips from the Robot Master Navi's (called WWW Navi's in the game) that function the same way.



Overall, its a really well set up game and world that you can really lose yourself in.

Gameplay:
The core gameplay in Battle Network is what you would expect out of a Mega Man Role Playing game; action packed gameplay with tight reponsive controls. The way the game works is that the mentality behind the Classic series comes through with Mega Man moving around and shooting his Mega Buster but he cannot jump.



So instead of jumping and shooting, you are moving and shooting. This is further pushed with the chip system, which gives Mega Man a wide selection of attacks he can used. For example, you can use bomb chips that allow you to throw powerful bombs in an arc (three spaces on the grid) and they can be useful for taking out turrets. Another example is using a Sword Chip for a powerful slash against a gliding foe charging at you.



Mega Man can have a 'hand' of chips equipped at once, but only ones that have the same letter class or same type. This leads to you making smart choices when initially selecting your hand for the fight, but there is a lot more to this system.



You have a 'custom' meter that builds up over time (happens very quick, as least 20-30 seconds) and you can equip a new hand of chips......or select modify and enter the fight with no chips. This allows you to fight with only the Mega Buster and after the custom meter is full again, you have a new row of chips to select. This is a great risk-reward system that should allow you to have a choice; fight the battle hard with only your Mega Buster until you get a hand you like, or use whatever the game throws at you and base your battle set up around that.

But there is further depth to this system, as Mega Man can only have 30 chips in his folder at a given time. Thankfully, you can change this at any time when running in the map (same thing with saving). The higher the letter ranking, the stronger the chips.



Thanks to the Mega Man Wiki, found a detailed breakdown of a mechanic called Program Advance. Sorry if I originally glossed over this feature everyone. Here is what the Wiki stated about the mechanic. "A Program Advance (プログラムアドバンス Puroguramu Adobansu?), PA for short, is an incident in the Mega Man Battle Network series when certain Battle Chips are used in succession to form a very powerful to enormously powerful offense or defense. One of the most known examples would be the Life Sword PA, which uses the Battle Chips Sword, Wide Sword, and Long Sword, in that order with the same code."

One final part of the combat system is the weakness system from MM Classic and MMX; its back but done differently. You fight various robot masters from the Classic series in new ways as WWW Navi's and each one has a different set-up. Fire Man has fire attacks for example and these fights can be very challenging. Sometimes unfair but with the great save system, enough pushing and Zenny grinding (to power yourself up) can get through things with little issue.



If you have a water chip attack, you could use it on Fire man to cause more damage and this extends to the other Navi's you fight across the game. This comes into my only issue with the game; the zenny grinding. You get enough of it to get by fine enough, but considering how expensive it is to power up Mega Man's Buster, it can be tough at first getting through the game. But again, the game has a great save system, so this can be somewhat megated.

Overall, the gameplay is strong here and something I was honestly surprised by; really enjoyed my time battling on the net with Mega Man!

Presentation:
The game looks great on GBA hardware and it scales up nicely to larger screens. The game has a great stylized look and if you loved the art direction of the Legends series, you will enjoy the art here.

Battle animations are solid and the music like all Mega Man games is a treat to listen too here. It only gets better from what I heard from the other BN OST's online, so looking forward to listening to more of the series soundtracks.

Main Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZocM0ZCnH5Q&list=PLACB9E941ADAC2F21&index=1
Home Town: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nSxBlJKvHs&index=2&list=PLACB9E941ADAC2F21
Incident Occurrence!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJZO0Drz2KQ&index=6&list=PLACB9E941ADAC2F21
Fire Field: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cplRj1b2b9c&index=8&list=PLACB9E941ADAC2F21
Running Through the Cyber World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtX-oC5eCnc&list=PLACB9E941ADAC2F21&index=9
Boundless Network: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai3Lr-Sgyuw&index=10&list=PLACB9E941ADAC2F21
Cold and Silent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8aD8lDKUww&index=12&list=PLACB9E941ADAC2F21
Electrical Crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuMDZGcEYEI&list=PLACB9E941ADAC2F21&index=14

Overall:
Really enjoyed my time playing this game, as it was an honest surprise for me. The game can get hard but its rewarding. The gameplay systems are very original and really like how creative Capcom got with the core combat system here. And while the game has issues with sometimes hard fights and making you grind Zenny at points, the good save system can make up for those issues.

I enjoyed this game a lot and from impressions online, it only gets better from here. Lets jack into the network and join Mega Man on more online adventures!

Hello everyone.

I am going back to the Mega Man 4 retrospective as after buying it on my Wii and 3DS.....it felt so much better and more fair than the PS1 Version I played on my Vita. So, going to make a new OP for the existing Mega Man 4 Retrospective later this week.

RK128 said:

Hello everyone.

I am going back to the Mega Man 4 retrospective as after buying it on my Wii and 3DS.....it felt so much better and more fair than the PS1 Version I played on my Vita. So, going to make a new OP for the existing Mega Man 4 Retrospective later this week.

Click to expand...

What was the issue with the PS1 version on Vita? I'm guessing input lag, as I've heard the Complete Works games via Vita suffer from some odd issues. I'm in Europe though so I can't get any MM games on my Vita bar Maverick Hunter X so I've not had the chance to try them myself.

Great Battle Network write up I'm looking forward to getting back to that sub series, I'll finally force myself to finish Battle Network 4!

Hello everyone!

Just a quick update to go over how the Retrospectives will be dealt with the next few days.

I re-did the MM2&3 and MM4 Retrospectives (which will be up on this megathread later today) so they better reflect the games.

I will also be putting up the MMX5, MM5, MM6 and MM7 Retrospectives later this week as well.

Also want to announced that I will be working with NeoGaf Member Village on the Mega Man Zero and Mega Man ZX series Retrospectives, so hope you look forward to us tacking that fun sub series of Mega Man ! Will also going to be working with NeoGaf Member Edson Farley on future Mega Man Retrospectives but will announce which ones in the future.

Hope to be more consistent with this Retrospective going forward and will not 'end' this for anything. No one is going to stop doing what I enjoy, so lets keep this Retrospective ride rolling!

Announced a Crash Bandicoot Retrospective not long ago and the Retrospectives for Spyro 2, A Crack in Time and Crash 1 will be up before this week ends.

Awesome, can't wait to read the next few threads you post up

RK128 said:

MM5&6

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Wait does this mean you are putting these two games in the same thread????????????

Edson Farley said:

Wait does this mean you are putting these two games in the same thread????????????

Click to expand...

Originally, I was, but going to edit the OP to reflect the changes. Learned with the MM2&3 Retrospective that focusing on one game at a time is the better methods of covering games.

Just it might be shorter compared to the later MM7 and 8 threads. Mega Man 9 & 10 WILL share the same Retrospective though.

I honestly thought the 2&3 thread was very cool.

whiterabbit said:

I honestly thought the 2&3 thread was very cool.

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Mmm......might consider holding a poll about the dual-thread idea for the Classic or X series soon. Maybe I can get a better idea if people like the dual thread concept. If you guys want, please response to this message if you like the dual thread idea or not .

Please consider voting in this if you want me to cover games one at a time, two or more in one Retrospective or whatever .

https://twitter.com/RK1283/status/727605186106146817

RK128 said:

Mmm......might consider holding a poll about the dual-thread idea for the Classic or X series soon. Maybe I can get a better idea if people like the dual thread concept. If you guys want, please response to this message if you like the dual thread idea or not .

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I'm not sure. I think there are a few games that can be grouped together. Mega Man X5 and X6, as well as Zero 2 and Zero 3, come to mind. Those are games that are fairly similar in a lot of ways, and are perhaps worth comparing and contrasting. I don't know though. I am a huge Mega Man fan, and thus I can talk at end about a lot of individual games, but I also recognize that giving a full retrospective to each game would be a lot of work and create a lot of threads.

There are a few games that in my opinion absolutely need their own threads though: Mega Man Zero, Mega Man ZX and ZX Advent for various reasons. Battle Network 4 and X7 for their negative impact on the series. On the other hand, the first four Gameboy Mega Man games can probably be summarized in one thread, since they are mostly remakes.

SkyOdin said:

I'm not sure. I think there are a few games that can be grouped together. Mega Man X5 and X6, as well as Zero 2 and Zero 3, come to mind. Those are games that are fairly similar in a lot of ways, and are perhaps worth comparing and contrasting. I don't know though. I am a huge Mega Man fan, and thus I can talk at end about a lot of individual games, but I also recognize that giving a full retrospective to each game would be a lot of work and create a lot of threads.

There are a few games that in my opinion absolutely need their own threads though: Mega Man Zero, Mega Man ZX and ZX Advent for various reasons. Battle Network 4 and X7 for their negative impact on the series. On the other hand, the first four Gameboy Mega Man games can probably be summarized in one thread, since they are mostly remakes.

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.....This is a great comment; thank you .

I grouped many games together before (look at my SEGA All Stars, any of the Game Gear threads) but I agree, some just need to be covered on their own.

Will edit the OP once more people chime in for comments, but for now, your points really explained a lot. Thank you man !

SkyOdin said:

I'm not sure. I think there are a few games that can be grouped together. Mega Man X5 and X6, as well as Zero 2 and Zero 3, come to mind. Those are games that are fairly similar in a lot of ways, and are perhaps worth comparing and contrasting. I don't know though. I am a huge Mega Man fan, and thus I can talk at end about a lot of individual games, but I also recognize that giving a full retrospective to each game would be a lot of work and create a lot of threads.

There are a few games that in my opinion absolutely need their own threads though: Mega Man Zero, Mega Man ZX and ZX Advent for various reasons. Battle Network 4 and X7 for their negative impact on the series. On the other hand, the first four Gameboy Mega Man games can probably be summarized in one thread, since they are mostly remakes.

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Megaman X5 and X6 are nowhere near the same game neither is Megaman 5 and 6,

There are multiple differences between both, it would likely be a better idea not to put games together.

The zero series makes sense, those games do not.

Edson Farley said:

Megaman X5 and X6 are nowhere near the same game neither is Megaman 5 and 6,

There are multiple differences between both, it would likely be a better idea not to put games together.

The zero series makes sense, those games do not.

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Don't worry, the MM Classic and MMX games won't be lumped together .

Hello everyone!

Just want to let you know what is going on with the Mega Man Retrospective for the next few weeks. College is coming to a close for the semester for me, so will be a lot more frequent making Retrospectives for the Blue Bomber soon enough .

I plan for things to work like this; going to bounce across each sub-series and it will flow like the following.

5/6 too 5/12
Mega Man 5
Mega Man X5
Mega Man 6
Mega Man X6

5/13 too 5/19
Mega Man 7
Mega Man 8
Mega Man Zero
Mega Man Battle Network 2
Mega Man X7

5/20 too 5/26
Mega Man X8
Mega Man 9 & 10
Mega Man Zero 2
Mega Man Battle Network 3
Mega Man Battle & Chase

5/27 too 6/2
Mega Man Game Boy Collection MMI-V)
Mega Xtreme Series (1 & 2)
Mega Man Zero 3
Misadventures of Tron Bone
Mega Man Battle Network 4
Mega Man Maverick Hunter X

6/3 too 6/9
Mega Man Soccer
Mega Man X Command Mission
Mega Man ZX
Mega Man Zero 4
Mega Man Power Fighters Series
Mega Man Power Battle (Pocket Color)

6/10 too 6/16
Mega Man Powered Up!
Mega Man ZX Advent
Mega Man Battle Network 5
Mega Man Battle Network 6
Mega Man & Bass

6/17 too 6/23 (Star Force Week!)
Mega Man Star Force
Mega Man Star Force 2
Mega Man Star Force 3
Mega Man Network Transmission

6/24 too 6/30
Mega Man The Wily Wars
Mega Man Unlimited
Mega Man X Corrupted
Mega Man Game Gear

Everything else will be covered after that time frame but I plan on sticking to that scheduled going forward and I hope you enjoy this .

Will also be making a dedicated Retrospective to the 'Lost Adventures of Rockman' which will cover JP-only titles and cancelled games that never came out. The Mega Man adventure will continue with full steam ahead this coming Friday everyone !

don't think it's a good idea to put gameboy Iv and 5 with Gameboy 13 since those two are completely different games. Especially V.

Edson Farley said:

don't think it's a good idea to put gameboy Iv and 5 with Gameboy 13 since those two are completely different games. Especially V.

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I am refusing to bundle games together, so doing it once shouldn't be that bad. Take a look at my SEGA All Stars Series Retrospective if you want an idea how it will play out .

Will give each game the attention it deserves, but its going to be a while before I get to it, so will think about your suggestion .

love this series, one of my favourites

The Mega Man Retrospective continues! After the release of Mega Man 4, we got Mega Man 5 a year later and this game is a more 'simple' sequel compared to Mega Man 2 and 3. It has less new features, but it sticks with what works and it ends up being a great time because of that.

Development:
Right after Mega Man 4 release, development soon followed on a sequel game. Inafune continues working with the series, citing that he feels that due Mega Man 5 was one of the more easier games in the series. In his own words, he did not want to "make an unreasonable game, an affront to the players".

The Team Behind Mega Man 5 includes the following:
Director - Ichirou Mihara
Producer - Tokuro Fujiwara
Designer - Ichirou Mihara
Programmer - Tadashi Kuwana
Artists - Keiji Inafune, Hayato Kaji, Naoya Tomita, Kazunori Tazaki, Kazushi Ito
Composer - Mari Yamaguchi

Considering they felt they stretched the core foundation as far as they could at this point, they just made everything 'better'. Mega Man's slide remained the same but they gave his charged shot more power thanks to Mega Man 4 sudo-villain, Dr. Cossack, upgrading his Mega Buster. He also made a little bird robot named 'Beat' which can help Mega Man attack foes when he is close to them.



Some interesting information about Mega Man 5 is that the robot masters featured in the game, are all based on creations over 130,000 gamers sent to Capcom thanks to a collaboration with Nintendo Power. This continued for a number of titles (just like Mega Man 3 and 4).

The game released in December 4th, 1992 to solid scores and solid well for Capcom. One would thing this would be the final NES Mega Man title around this time period but we got Mega Man 6 a year later, which I will touch on when I make the Retrospective on that title.

Story:
After the events of Mega Man 4, Rock and Dr. Light are relaxing in his lab but when they go outside, what appears to be Protoman captures Dr. Light and Mega Man follows suit. Protoman is causing havoc across the world and goes after a series of robot masters Protoman took in; Star Man, Gravity Man, Gyro Man, Stone Man, Crystal Man, Charge Man, Napalm Man, and Wave Man.



After defeating them, we head to Protoman's base of operations and it functions like the Dr. Cossack levels in Mega Man 4. After fighting Protoman, the original Protoman appears and we learn that the one causing all the problems is a creation from Dr. Light called 'Dark Man IV'.

We then head through Dr. Wily's Fortress and take him out, saving the day. Dr. Light escapes and Mega Man saves Dr. Light. All is well with the world, with Protoman watching over Dr. Wily's base being destroyed as Mega Man & Light escape.

Simple story and one that continues the 'Wily is not the main villian.....nah, we are just playing around. Take out that guy yet again.' It makes up play through more levels, so cool with that set up.

Gameplay:
Well....its more Mega Man Classic. Jump and shoot action with abilities from past games feeling good here. The charged buster shot is very powerful and makes fighting through the robot master levels & fighting them much easier compared to past games. We also get a little bird named Beat, which can attack foes that come close to Mega Man. He is very useful for fighting bosses and its a good idea to find him! You do so by exploring the different levels for M-E-G-A-M-A-N-V letters.



Level gimmicks this time out continue to be interesting like past games, with Gravity Man having, well, gravity gimmicks that are tricky but fun to get through. My personal favorite robot master stage was Wave Man's level, were you get to ride a water craft until you get to the boss encounter.



The fights themselves are fun and enjoyable, with different patterns like other Mega Man titles. What makes this fun is how the level gimmicks translate into the boss stages. Gravity Man pushes upside down and right side up as you fight him, so Mega Buster or Weakness, you have to watch your surroundings and movement.



Some of the robot master powers are fun to play with, like the Star Shield though that isn't very effective. This mirrors the other powers, with them far less useful due to the stronger Mega Buster outside of Robot Master fights. This gets fixed in later games but it is a small issue here.



We see that happen in other Mega Man games with Underwater fights, but its nice seeing the robot master bosses having new ways to fight them. The only downside is that they are very easy to fight, as thanks to Mega Man's powerful Charged shot, you can kill them quite fast compared to normal Mega Buster shots.

Tower Stages:
The Tower stages follow Mega Man 4 with them being easy but still very rewarding to get through. The first fortress has a nice haunted feel with the location being set in a drab castle.



The second level is more high-tech with a lot of gimmicks to interact with. Spikes and Conveyor Belts common in this section.



The final two Protoman castle levels is on the a rooftop and one where you fight the fake Protoman himself.



The Wily Fortress is composed of four sections. The first one is a tricky section, with spikes being common and having you jump on spinning wheels.



The second area is set in a pipe system flooded with water. This is a fun section, as this wasn't explored in past castle stages. The final two levels is a BOSS RUSH, with two fights with Wily. This part of the game is enjoyable due to the Wily fights being rewarding battles, with the final one being against this big tank with a skull design. The weakness for this? Spoiler:
Overall, this was a fun set of tower levels to go through.

Presentation:
Did you enjoy the presentation of Mega Man 4? Well, its more of that! The game has bright colors and more space-like locations compared to past games, and I love space levels.

The robot master designs are great as well and show a lot of personality.



Musically, we got a few nice tracks though I prefer the other NES soundtracks over this game.
Crystal Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNMI-Vkrp_Q&index=3&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA
Gravity Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPiKZ4AZR8A&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA&index=4
Charge Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C75Q7bdQAQA&index=10&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA
Wily Fortress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5YIJ_-WlNM&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA&index=21
Evil Protoman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZS5V8o5p2Y&index=18&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA
Protoman Fortress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cuDFYZXw0c&index=26&list=PL68DA338C7EA8D0FA

Overall:
I had a great time playing this for the first time! The gameplay is more Mega Man and after having some issues with Mega Man 4, having a more calmer and relaxed pace with this ones easy difficulty was nice. I enjoyed revisiting Mega Man 4 and honestly prefer that to this, but I enjoyed my time with Mega Man 5 a great deal. Highly recommend this if you want a fun adventure with the Blue Bomber.



Next up is a game I really want to cover; Mega Man 6. Never played this either, so this should be a lot of fun to try out!

Mega Man 5 is pretty good...

This part is tricky.



Also Crystal Man's stage is quite dangerous.

I agree that Wave Man's stage is a lot of fun with the "hydro cycle" part.

This continues my Mega Man Retrospective and this is a major game in the X series; this was supposed to be the conclusion to the X Series originally. So, this game tries to wrap up a lot of loose ends that hanged since day one.

How does the game compare to other Mega Man X titles and is it a solid conclusion to the series? Lets find out!

Development:
Inafune had little part of X5's development, telling the team 'Finish the series off with this title' making the team push for the game to cover everything; the series connections to Mega Man Classic, how the future series of Mega Man is set up (MM Zero), and in general, trying to make a fun final game for fans of the X Series.

The team behind the game includes the following:
Director - Koji Okohara
Designer - Toyozumi Sakai
Artists - Haruki Suetsugu, Ryuji Higurashi
Composers - Naoto Tanaka, Naoya Kamisaka, Takuya Miyawaki

But Capcom commissioned for a sequel game, MMX6, to release a year later after MMX5. Will be covering that with great detail when the time comes, but for now, lets just say they had little time to work on it compared to X4 and X5.

Localization of the game is something to note here, as the Mavericks you fight have original names for the NA/EU releases instead of translations of their Japanese names. This is thanks to Capcom voice actress Alyson Court, who was involved in the game's localization, came up with names for the Marvicks as a tribute to her then-husband's love of the rock-band Guns & Roses.

This lead to some really fun names for the different Mavericks: Grizzly Slash, Duff McWhalen (amazing name by the way), Squid Adler, Izzy Glow, Dark Dizzy, The Skiver, Matterx, Axle the Red

The game released in November 2000 in Japan and in Februrary & August in 2001 to lukewarm reception. But the series continued and we got three more mainline X titles despite this originally being a conclusion title for the series.

Story:
The game takes place a few months after the events of Mega Man X4, with the Repliforce ending and Earth being in piece. The rest of the story summary is from the detailed and well organized Mega Mega Man X5 Wiki:

"The repair of the space colonies damaged during the war was almost complete, the only space colony remaining being the giant colony Eurasia located in a Lagrangian point. As it was quite old, it was planned to receive extensive renovation. However, one day someone had occupied Eurasia and took control of it, scattering a virus in the colony and using its artificial gravity systems to set it on a collision course towards Earth. Within 16 hours, Eurasia will crash and cause great destruction, in the worst case extinguishing all life from the planet. The Maverick Hunters plan on using the large particle cannon Enigma to destroy Eurasia before it happens. The Enigma cannon is somewhat old and needs to be upgraded. Signas, the Hunters' new commander, orders Mega Man X and his comrade Zero, as they race against time to collect the four parts necessary to upgrade the Enigma and stop Eurasia before it's too late. To make things worse, Sigma scattered the Sigma Virus all over the world and the parts needed are being protected by Mavericks."



So X and Zero head out to get the parts needed for the cannon and ship, with the gaol of taking out the Eurasia Ship to prevent further damage to the Earth. Where things get interesting, is based on if you play as X or Zero.

X has interactions with the Mavericks and it is very interesting; some Mavericks like Squid Adler KNOW X from past events or others honorably push X to fight them for the part like Grizzly Slash and Duff McWhalen. I enjoyed encountering the bosses just to see what the Maverick will say. Its also interesting to note that The Skiver was part of the Repliforce, showing that continuity is important to the series.

The story also explores Zero's past with Wily, as the Simga Virus WAS originally the Zero Virus, just transferred. This causes Zero to be immune to its effects and gets stronger the more he takes in. Depending on if you use the shuttle or not and it succeeds, this leads to Zero being activated how Wily intended and him becoming 'evil'.



The end of the game depends on if destroy the station or not but how it plays out is interesting. If Zero isn't evil, X just lives on and fights another day. But if Zero is evil, not only does X recover from his fight but we get Zero being dead, X forgetting everything about his friend & even seeing some hints toward the Zero series.



It sounds like a lot, and it is, but it isn't super interesting over all. I enjoyed the boss encounters and the end-game story stuff but the text boxes and long stills were a step down for me compared to the FMV's that X4 had.

Gameplay:
Well, its more Mega Man X in many respects. X has his Mega Buster and Fourth Armor from MMX4 (if you play as him from the start) and Zero has his Z-Saber and Z-Buster (if you start the game as Zero). Both can dash on ground & mid-air, wall jump/cling, and have basic attacks (X = Cannon Attacks, Zero = Melee Attacks).



What is different is the smaller things. One thing is a time system, where once you select a level, you lose one out of 16 hours. If you lose all your hours, you HAVE to fire the cannon/fly the shuttle. But with 8 Mavericks and two fights with a new character, you still have 6 extra hours for backtracking and stuff, so this isn't that big of a deal.



Hostages are a new system though, as if you save enough in the stages, you can increase your health or weapon energy. This is a much larger mechanic with X6 though.....an annoying one I must say.

The armor system is different too, with X having three armors to collect, but unlike past games, you need ALL FOUR PARTS for them to work. Meaning, you have to get every part to even use the thing. This is very, very annoying and makes them useless until you reach the halfway mark. Will touch on why this is annoying when I talk about the stages. But anyway, you have three armors; Falcon (ability to fly for 10 seconds in the air), Gaea (greater defense and ability to move on spikes but no air-dash) and Ultimate Armor (ability to use the powerful air dash Giga Attack). Zero even has an armor and like the Ultimate Armor, you can find it in Simga Stage 3.



Stages:
The stages in X5 are varied, ranging from a stroll through a sunken ship, racing on a jet ski to a hidden base, and exploring a location filled with literal guns & roses (ha); the level variety is on point and makes each one fun.



Squid Alder’s level is fun if you are just going through it for example, as it’s a high speed bike section during the introduction that leads to a platform heavy puzzle area where you are hit/shoot pillars into switches to continue. If you want to get the head armor piece to the Falcon Armor…….you will be here for a very long time due having to collect little spheres. This stage was the reason I never bothered collecting the armors outside of the Ultimate Armor. Otherwise, fun stage.



Also enjoy the fire level in the game where you fight Matterx; it has you hide behind rock pillars to avoid insta-death fire blasts and it is fun to avoid all the attacks plus it makes great use of the wall cling ability.



The fights themselves are sadly not that rewarding if you are going in weakness order. They get locked in place after you hit them with weakness attacks and it makes the fights very easy. I tried fighting a few of the Mavericks with only the Mega Buster and they presented fun patterns. Duff McWallen is a great one for example, as he shoots pillars of ice that make a platform you run across. And during the mid-fight, you have to avoid them being shot at you rapidly toward the wall with spikes. So if you want a challenge for X, do not use the weakness for the bosses.



Boss Weapons:
Items you get from the bosses are good; you get the Slasher which can be charged into a shield that attacks foes for a bit, Izzy Glows weapon is a movable missile, and you have the Goo Shaver which shoots a sliding across the floor. But two weapons I want to highlight; the Electric Ball and the Time Stopper. Yes, the Mega Man 1 and Mega Man 2 weapons are in this game and function almost 1-to-1 the same. Even two bosses heavily mirror Mega Man 7 and Mega Man X1 bosses.



Virus/Sigma Stages:
Then we have the Tower Levels, which are complete re-creations of past Mega Man locations. Virus Stage 1 is a remake of the Bubble Man’s Stage from Mega Man 2....



.....With the boss of the level being the YELLOW DEVIL! Yes, the X Series has its own Devil fight and is just as long and difficult like past Mega Man Classic games. But the final form of this thing is Wily Machine Six.



The next Virus Stage is a re-creation of Sigma Stage 1 from Mega Man X with it concluding with this guy from Mega Man X (link to image). It’s the same exact fight as well.



We have two more Virus Stages, with one concluding with a fight with Zero and the next one having the vanishing blocks from past Mega Man Classic titles. It concludes with a fight with Sigma.



Overall, the level design is strong here and despite some really annoying bits here and there, I had fun running through the game as X. Yes, I said X as I didn’t play as Zero for this run of the game. I completed most of the game as Zero with my X Collection copy a few years back and decided to try the game out with X and I made a good move, as you can lose Zero.

This is a problem that I need to bring up; if the shuttle fails, you lose the ability to play as Zero. And this is randomized after you collect all the parts of the shuttle. One way to avoid issues is either collect three pieces of the cannon and keep firing it until you get it to work or just play the entire game as X, with you collecting heart tanks with him.

Presentation:
The anime cut-scenes are gone but that does not prevent the game from being a great looking title. The levels have a lot of detail and the sprite work is very well done. The Pre-Rendered bits here and there look nice to me honestly too.

The music is filled with great remixes from past MM Classic and MMX tittles with the new tracks being really great inclusions. Some of the new tracks like the Boss Theme are personal favorites to me.

Opening Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYlf0JRqzoE&index=1&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244
Into Stage X: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwnRxP8Eni4&index=3&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244
Intro Stage Zero: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-8sGtF_LX8&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244&index=5
Grizzly Slash (Crescent Grizzly): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyIFODbDK5M&index=9&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244
Squid Adled (Volt kraken): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBmqIGiAHdg&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244&index=10
Duff McWhalen (Tidal Makkoeen): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLfRIlLQEe8&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244&index=12
Shadow Devil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axwDkB9Zulo&index=23&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244
Boss Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHkkensA774&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244&index=19
Zero Virus Stage 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9578n9P6I4M&index=22&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244
Zero Virus Stage 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duPoJrA9qwI&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244&index=24
Dr. Light: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKzwSrmUjZQ&index=27&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244
Zero's Death: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XNcO5hBaxQ&index=30&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244
Sigma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3fiZXzkOOA&index=26&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244

We even have a few unused tracks too.
Deep Sea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMSW3TfqjKM&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244&index=32
Dr. Light Beta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUTLGVbLMVQ&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244&index=33
Zero's Death Beta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g02oEBpHoW0&index=36&list=PL7oGGg7qjS8FBThZq07Zoub84l0-Eu244

Overall:
This is a fun action platformer that while having some issues, is still a great time for people that are fans of the X or Classic Series. The game really celebrates the entire Mega Man series (from 2000) and it is a game I recommend playing.

Japanese eShop VC has just released Rockman 7 and Rockman X.

Weils said:

Japanese eShop VC has just released Rockman 7 and Rockman X.

Click to expand...

Hoping that we get Mega Man X then this month on the NA eshop.

Weils said:

Japanese eShop VC has just released Rockman 7 and Rockman X.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the heads up! Hope this leads to them landing on NA E-Shop soon enough for New 3DS owners .

This game in the Mega Man Retrospective continues the Mega Man X series despite X5 originally being the final game in the series. Unlike X4 and X5 which got enough time to be made, X6 only got under a year to be produced.

Does the story make sense considering X5's ending? Is the game enjoyable despite its rushed nature? Is it REALLY as bad as some of the weakest games on the market?

All will be answered here hopefully and while I might not be the most positive with this one, I hope you still enjoy reading my Retrospective on the title!

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Development on Mega Man X6 started not long after work on X5 wrapped up and most of the same team worked on that game but with a much tighter work load.

Director - Koji Ohkohara
Designer - Toyozumi Sakai
Artist - Haruki Suetsugu
Composer - Naoto Tanaka

This game was infamous for how it was produced behind the back of Inafune, who was at the time Mega Man series producer and his comment on the game follows: "And so I’d always planned to make Zero come back to life in the Mega Man Zero series, but then X6 comes out sooner from another division and Zero comes back to life in that, and I’m like, 'What’s this!? Now my story for Zero doesn’t make sense! Zero’s been brought back to life two times!'"

He was flabbergasted with X6 being made and wanted to make up for fans for the title with pushing Inti-Crates to ensure MM Zero is strong title. Artist Hauki Suetsugu, someone who worked on past MMX PS1 titles, also cites rough working conditions when making the game. This lead him to design the Mavericks of the game to be more 'simple' compared to past MMX games.


*Image made by deityofshadows on DeviantArt

The last bit of info is that the game was completely voice acted in JP for all regions and it even kept the J-Pop intro song many PS1 Mega Man games had in the JP version but got gutted in the localized version.



X6 released in November in Japan, with December & February releases in NA and EU following after. It got meet mixed reception with a few positive reviews thrown into the mix. IGN gave the game an 8/10 while EGM gave it a 3.5/10 for example.

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The story of MMX6 is odd, as it is a mix of the two endings of MMX5. You have the good ending being used to show that X and the other hunters continue fighting on despite Zero's death but you have the bad endings impact on the Earth be present.



So the game opens two weeks (instead of two years) after the events of MMX5 with Zero still being dead and Earth being heavily damaged from the impact of the Eurasia Colony. X is sent to take out a Maverick in the crash site while seeing Zero land the final blow.

A robot called High Max, looking for the 'Zero Nightmare' and after a fight with X, both it and X warp elsewhere. We later see a Reploid called Isoc (who is NOT Dr. Wily in robot form) telling everyone that they are in charge of repairing the Earth and are looking for researchers to help find out what is going on.



X and the Maverick Hunters don't by this and start going to where eight of the researchers are located to check up on them and see what this 'Zero Nightmare' really is. The overall plot is......meh to be honest though, the translation is the highlight here.

After my enjoyment of SAO: Hollow Fragment on my Vita, I get a kick out of Engerish and badly translated games sometimes, so seeing this game being riddled with them was funny! Here is exactly, line-from-line, not joking here, an exchange between Zero and Dr. Light's Armor AI:
Light: "Zero, I'm glad to see again"
Zero: "I will never die....."

Or here is one between X and Zero after X finds Zero alive:
X: "How did you come back?!
Zero: "I hid myself to repair myself"

Shakespearean works of art, I must say. To be serious, I should be mad with this as no other X game had this level of badly translated writing but like the bad voice acting in X4 and MM8, I just can't help but chuckle at this.

Story does touch on interesting things, like Isoc being heavily implied to be a robot version of Dr. Wily and getting a bit of Aila's life outside of being a navigator for the Maverick Hunters via Gate but otherwise, its not that interesting overall.



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Gameplay here.....well I will be cutting this into three parts; core gameplay, level design & the Nightmare system.

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Gameplay is more Mega Man X, with X having his Falcon Armor from the start while Zero being unlocked via special gate in any of the levels (after you take down the Zero Nightmare boss). X is fun to play as and Zero is very overpowered, making him a joy to play as. The only major inclusion here is that X can use the Z-Saber and that Zero has his Z-Buster from the start when you unlock him.

Levels are built in mind for Zero instead of X this time though, which I will be touching on soon enough. But for now, lets just say Zero deals with the least amount of annoying things here.

We also have hostages returning from X5 and they are a large mechanic here; you NEED the parts they offer you like Speedster, Armor Defense (which increases your invincibility frames when hit) and Higher Jump (X NEEDS this) to get everything in the game and when Nightmare creatures touch a hostage, they are gone for good.



Even if you go back to the level, they are still 'gone'. So reset your game when this happens. Otherwise, the only thing to comment on is weapon abilities/armors and Zero has a few good tools here. You have a strong screen nuke attack and a powerful super fast spin attack are great additions to Zero's line up. X has some good tools as well, with two new armors that allow him to become a ninja (shooting shurikins) and one that lets him use the Z-Saber more.....but its best you stick with the Falcon Armor.



Overall, the gameplay here is fine enough and if you enjoyed past X games, you will have fun here......as long as you put in the cheat codes for Ultimate Armor X and Black Armor Zero. Will explain why in the level design portion.

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Level design....where to begin? Okay, lets start with the good. Some of the levels present fun gimmicks that I enjoyed. You have the ice level with walls you cannot cling/jump off of and that was a nice deviation from how things are in most X titles.

I also liked the acid rain gimmick in one of the stages, as you are pushed to get things done super fast and the game is somewhat fair with health re-store stations if you have low health.



Also like the idea behind the dual-level system where each level has a smaller level to explore that has an extra boss at the end of the state, making things quite replayable.

Now, lets move on to the bad, as there is sadly a lot of that.

X has a very hard time here, as the game was NOT built for him. You have sections where you need the added height of Zero's double jump or faster movement abilities to get through places but you do not have that. This is something you can adjust to at varying levels depending on the Mavericks you take on with X. Levels like Blaze Heatnix where you have to fight the same mini-boss 5-6 times is a problem with X but some of the earlier Mavericks aren't that bad to deal with.



Zero is the best way to play the game, as he has less annoying bits do deal with thanks to his expanded moveset. But his base armor is very weak and with how dangerous things can get for Zero are, it makes him die very frequently. Using the Black Armor Zero code removes this issue and as a result, the game can be quite fun with him. It also turns what should be a game that is very annoying to play, into quite an easy game.

I beat the game as Zero in a single sitting and that is without hunting down for everything. X took longer to beat with though and if you want a hard challenge, play the game as him.

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The Nightmare system is something that NEEDS to be discussed, as this is one of the worst parts of this entire game. Level design is a bit annoying and the core gameplay is fine but this causes a lot of the frustrations many have with this title.

Design wise, this was supposed to mirror the levels changing after fighting specific Mavericks like in MMX1 or MMX3 and that affecting the other levels. If you never played X1 before, picture this; fighting a Storm Eagle and after taking him out, Spark Mandrills stage is completely blacked out due to Eagle's ship crashing into his power-plaint.

That is a great idea, but if done poorly, it can just anger gamers with annoying level gimmicks that are NOT needed. X6 suffers from this poorly implemented on the game with Nightmare Effects that only detract from levels. Having acid rain come down on you with darkness being all over the place, fireballs making navigation across icy platforms far more frustrating then before and having extra blocks making the crusher stage even more stressful.



I don't mind this idea, but it really detracts from the game and that is a problem. You can avoid this by not selecting the Red covered stages......but you still get Nightmare Effects when you select non-Rec covered stages. It makes the effect feel random and it shouldn't feel this way.

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The last portion before presentation is the tower stages and we have two with gate and one with Sigma (SHOCKER! He's back). The first Gate Stage has spikes everywhere and a very large gap that if you do not have the jumper or Shadow Armor, you will NOT be able progress. That is a major design issue that shouldn't be present. Otherwise, it is a challenging first stage, more so then other first tower levels honestly.



Rising Lava, spikes all over the place and foes flying at you from all sides. The boss (Nightmare Mother) is a fun fight with Zero as well.



The second stage for Gate is okay for and I had fun getting through here. Fighting with Gate was a tennis match the balls hurting you the more you hit them....but you have....to...hit....them. Again, poor design rearing its ugly head but fine level otherwise.

The Sigma stage is okay and fights with him (two of them) are quite easy compared to past battles. The second phase has an amazing theme though and one of my favorite versions of Sigma's theme in the entire series.

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The presentation continues the devastated look that X5 established and I like this style. Harsher looking locations makes me feel more at-edge when exploring the various levels.

Musically, its a damn good soundtrack, with many tracks hitting home. Intro Stage, Blizzard Wolffang, Blaze Heatnix, Sigma Phase 2.....many of the tracks are fantastic and next to X1, X2 and X5, this is my favorite score in the series.

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This game is very odd to me, as I should hate it more. It has bad design issues and the story isn't that interesting. But, I had fun with this and for people willing to deal with some really annoying gameplay systems/design issues, it is worth playing this game at least once.

I take back my comments about this comparing to Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 06, but I still do not consider this a good game. Its just 'okay' to me honestly.

Just wanted to let you all know future plans for the Retrospectives.

The Mega Man X7 and Command Mission Retrospectives will not happen until far later, as I still have to buy and play those games. But to make up for that, next week I will put up the Maverick Hunter X Retrospective.

This also means the Classic Series will be getting a lot of focus here on out with threads covering MM6, 7, 8, and 9 & 10 rapidly starting next week. MM & Bass I will be covering to.......going to be a lot of fun :l.

Battle Network, Zero & ZX will take the MMX slot until I beat MMX7 and Command Mission, so those will start coming back next week too .

RK, I'd like to make a suggestion. I think you did this in some of the later retrospectives, but it would be cool if you can add for each games on which platforms (ie. PS3, Vita, 3DS, etc.) they can be played on. If they are part of collections, etc.

Hopefully Capcom re-releases that Mega Man X collection, it doesn't look like you can play most of the games on any of the current or last gen hardware. The SNES versions for the n3DS doesn't seem like they're coming anytime soon for X-X3.

CaptainZombie said:

RK, I'd like to make a suggestion. I think you did this in some of the later retrospectives, but it would be cool if you can add for each games on which platforms (ie. PS3, Vita, 3DS, etc.) they can be played on. If they are part of collections, etc.

Hopefully Capcom re-releases that Mega Man X collection, it doesn't look like you can play most of the games on any of the current or last gen hardware. The SNES versions for the n3DS doesn't seem like they're coming anytime soon for X-X3.

Click to expand...

That is a great idea. Will try to do this for all future Retrospectives, but will add that to the OP of this thread as well so when people start looking things up, it will be easier that way.

I was able to play the X series via X Collection on my PS2 and X4-X5 through PS1 Classics on my Vita .

Hope they get re-released soon too . More people need to play them honestly.

One of my favorite series, really awesome to see this your sonic retrospective was super cool so i'm excited to see this one!

TheBlueBomber said:

One of my favorite series, really awesome to see this your sonic retrospective was super cool so i'm excited to see this one!

Click to expand...

Thank you . All the ones I made so far on here and can be found via clicking links in the OP.

Hope to have the following out this week:
Mega Man 6, 7 & 8
Mega Man Maverick Hunter X

MM6's one is being drafted now and have an idea how the Maverick Hunter X one will be like.

After replaying X5 and X6 in a row...

I actually like X6 better. I actually like X6, a lot. The atmosphere, the way the story is presented, the lack of a time system, Zero's awesome new saber, Gate being a great villain, Alia being optional, the killer soundtrack... it's still a lower tier X game, but a good game nonetheless. It definitely has warts and suffers from rushed development, but it has some of the absolute coolest maverick designs in the series (Wolfang, Heatnix, Turtloid) and I love love love the broken and dismal aesthetic that all of the stages have. The atmosphere is just so different compared to every other X game.

I guess that puts X5 as the third worst, just above X8 and way above X7.

SolVanderlyn said:

After replaying X5 and X6 in a row...

I actually like X6 better. I actually like X6, a lot. The atmosphere, the way the story is presented, the lack of a time system, Zero's awesome new saber, Gate being a great villain, Alia being optional, the killer soundtrack... it's still a lower tier X game, but a good game nonetheless. It definitely has warts and suffers from rushed development, but it has some of the absolute coolest maverick designs in the series (Wolfang, Heatnix, Turtloid) and I love love love the broken and dismal aesthetic that all of the stages have. The atmosphere is just so different compared to every other X game.

I guess that puts X5 as the third worst, just above X8 and way above X7.

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I agree and I honestly enjoyed the game. Just that the annoying parts are, well, very annoying :l. Glad you got past that though and enjoyed the game .

It must be amazing playing through these battle network games for the first time. Unfortunately for you, you're looking at a minimum of 60 hours each for 2 and 3 to really get through them and appreciate them for what they are =p once you get past those, 4 and 5 go relatively quickly in comparison. 6 is a high note to end on as well. Loving these retrospectives by the way!

b4mv said:

It must be amazing playing through these battle network games for the first time. Unfortunately for you, you're looking at a minimum of 60 hours each for 2 and 3 to really get through them and appreciate them for what they are =p once you get past those, 4 and 5 go relatively quickly in comparison. 6 is a high note to end on as well. Loving these retrospectives by the way!

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Thank you for the kind words!

That is why the BN Retrospective are taking the longest; very long games X(. Will hopefully post more BN Retrospectives in June when I have a lot of free time.

b4mv said:

It must be amazing playing through these battle network games for the first time. Unfortunately for you, you're looking at a minimum of 60 hours each for 2 and 3 to really get through them and appreciate them for what they are =p once you get past those, 4 and 5 go relatively quickly in comparison. 6 is a high note to end on as well. Loving these retrospectives by the way!

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What?

BN 2 is a 12 hour game, and 3 is like 25, 35 if you go for the secret area and 100%.

4 is longer than 2.

I have Megaman Battle Network 3 Blue... I tried it, but only for like 30 minutes. Do I need to use a guide so I don't get lost or miss stuff?

This title in the Mega Man Retrospective is very important, as it is the final installment of the Classic series on the NES. That is major, due to things changing a good deal with Mega Man X on the Super Nintendo and the next Classic title, Mega Man 7 on the Super Nintendo.

Between Rock having different armors and everything from the past titles carrying over, Mega Man 6 is a big title for the series and for some, one of the more under-appreciated pieces in the series. Lets all take a look into how Rock takes out Mr. X.

Development History:
The game started development right alongside Mega Man X; that is major as while the later was on the Super Nintendo, the former still remained on the NES. Inafune comments on how having six titles in a series is quite rare, so they could use a lot of the series trademark formula again and few would complain about it.

If anything, that was a blessing for the developers, as they was able to use a strong foundation built across five games. Because of this, the game was very smooth development wise with the only complication was the artists having issue with the designs for a new feature, the Rush Adapters.



If you remember from past Retrospectives, I covered how some of the Robot masters were pulled from Japan contests feature in Nintendo Power. This time though, that continued with the only exception being that two of the six were pulled from North American fans. The robot masts that fit into this were Knight and Wind Man.



Mega Man 6 was not published by Capcom in North America, with Nintendo taking charge regarding that. Capcon put their backing behind Mega Man X and Mega Man Soccer instead on the Super Nintendo, considering that was the newest system on the market. Nintendo didn't just help Capcom out because they were buddies, but they did due to trying to sell an updated model of the NES (called the NES-101) and wanted to use Mega Man 6 as a flagship game for that.

In the end, the game released November 1993 in JP and in NA in March 1994. It got great reception and the game, alongside the other NES Mega Man's were ported to the PlayStation in Japan under the label 'Complete Works'. They ended up getting digital versions on PSN JP (with MM1-4 releasing in NA and all six releasing in JP) and were the base versions for the Anniversary Collection on the GameCube, PS2 and Xbox.

Story:
The story continues after MM5, with a major event called 'Robot Masters Tournament' being held to celebrate the world’s robots and the abilities they have. Think of it like those Robot Death Matches, but less violent....I think.



Anyway, Mr. X is hosting the event and despite not being a fan of fighting, still sends Rock & Rush to ensure things go well and no problems happen. Surprise, our 'not' bad guy Mr. X ends up re-programing the different robots in the event and it’s up to Mega Man to take out the eight powerful robots that were part of the event.

After taking them out, we learn that while Mr. X states he has controlled Dr. Wily from the start.....he really is Wily. Shocking, I know. So Mega Man continues through the fortress and takes out Dr. Wily, finally capturing him for the crimes he has committed.

Again with the false bad guy but at least we got a nice excuse to go around the world this time out. The robot masters in the game include the following and the places they are from as well.



Saudi Arabia - Flame Man
China - Wind Man
Greece - Centaur Man
United Kingdom - Knight Man
Japan - Yamato Man
United States - Tomahawk Man
Brazil - Plant Man
Canada - Blizzard Man

Gameplay:
This is classic Mega Man, with him jumping, shooting and sliding. I could literally put my thoughts on Mega Man 5 here copy and paste honestly, but will comment on the new features the game does have.

Robot Master Weapons like Mega Man 2 can interact with the levels with Fire Man's weapon burning down walls for example. Mega Man also has the ability to fuse with Rush to use two powers; Power Adapter or Flight Adapter. These abilities allows him to throw powerful punches with the former that can break objects while the later gives you an extra jump/hover at the expense of losing your sliding.

Weapons Mega Man can get are fun were with the fire blast having a traveling effect for example. But like Mega Man 5, your buster's charged shot is so powerful to the point you can just stick with that and only use the weapons during weakness order.

Also worth noting is now you can enter bosses from different spots on the level and that is needed to get the Adapter parts. I felt that was a cool change level design wise and gives you different ways to play through stages.

Level Design:
This continues to be strong like in past Mega Man games but the difficulty is quite low here. When I say that, I mean that levels have few obstacles to deal with and the game keeps throwing E-Tanks at you, but you still have a challenge to go through. I really like this and as a result, it made playing through Mega Man 6 a treat.

Level design also uses the Charged shot in cool ways, like how you can use it to shoot a foe on a pit of spikes. After hitting the spikes, it turns into a platform you can hop over and over on to keep moving forward.



Blizzard Man is a great case too with his stage having you explore on top of a ship going in and out of the water. You have to avoid the water parts or you die, making it a fun platforming challenging to deal with. You also have ice-covered floors to slide across and this is a lot of fun; sliding makes you go very fast and you can fly through the level if you are good enough.



One thing to take into consideration with the levels is that they are all built around the Adaptors Rock collects, so they are very useful tools that you will find consistently using as you play through the game. Overall, the level design is very strong in Mega Man 6, even if it can be a bit easy.

Presentation:
The presentation is very strong here, with bright colors and a lot of detail. But the music….man, lets talk about that. It is rocking hard, with some of my favorite Classic series tracks in the series.



Knight Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBZL_Iqheeg&list=PL2E2A41D6EB4D64F6&index=9
Blizzard Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93q61LT2Vuk&list=PL2E2A41D6EB4D64F6&index=6
Intro Theme Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_gnHCeu62s&list=PL2E2A41D6EB4D64F6&index=3
Flame Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKHVUupbqx0&list=PL2E2A41D6EB4D64F6&index=8
Mr. X Stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yERlXLbNq70&index=20&list=PL2E2A41D6EB4D64F6
Wily Fortress (MM6): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsQ8dpS-RJY&list=PL2E2A41D6EB4D64F6&index=23

The classic series from MM1-6 also got PlayStation versions via Complete Works and that lead to a remixed soundtrack being produced. Will have a link to the play list here and they had this for every game in the NES series of titles, so give them a listen.

Overall:
While I glossed over some parts like the tower stages and this Retrospective is a bit on the short side, I really enjoyed Mega Man 6. It does a lot right and feels like the Classic series coming to a nice closure. It didn’t end of course, with Mega Man 7 on the horizon, but still, it is a nice cap-off to the NES series of Mega Man titles and is a damn strong late NES release.

Lets fight for peace and see what adventures the Blue Bomber faces on the Super Nintendo as we jump into the new adventure that is Mega Man 7 quite soon.

Will give my full thoughts later, but dropping in to say that the Complete Works Blizzard and Knight Man themes are awesome

Also: lol at Tomahawk Man being American and a skiing robot being Canadian