Mega Man IV
In this game, Dr. Wily remotely reprograms some of the past Robot Masters, who are on display in glass cases at an exhibition (once again, there are eight of them - this time four each from Mega Man 4 and Mega Man 5). Mega Man happens to be close by to the exhibition, and so it falls to him to stop Dr. Wily's latest evil scheme - as usual. Dr. Wily has a space-fortress this time around, so Mega Man has to get there to put an end to this.
Following on from the good presentation of Mega Man III, Mega Man IV turns it up another notch, to being downright slickly presented. It features such niceties as a rotary boss select screen with really rather neat-looking sprite-scaling and level portraits, amongst other things - in some ways, it's even better-presented than the NES titles are, in fact. Of course, it plays just as well as the first and third games do, too, and that's what really counts.
The last of the Mega Man Killers is introduced here, too - his name is Ballade, and he is powerful and dangerous, but, as you will see, he is also noble.
You can collect small items called "P-Chips" in this game in order to purchase power-ups and other useful items. Also worthy of note is that this is the only game in the series in which firing charged buster shots subjects you to recoil, so be careful!
Mega Man V
Out of all of the Game Boy Mega Man titles, this one is the most unique. A group of robots known as the Stardroids attempts to invade Earth, and even beat up Mega Man in the process of doing so! Because normal weapons cannot hurt them, the Stardroids are quite successful in their attempt to dominate the planet at first - at least until Dr. Light upgrades Mega Man's buster so that it doesn't shoot large bullets when charged, but his entire fist! Also, for once, Dr. Wily doesn't really have anything to do with what's going on, although he does try to leverage the situation later on.
There is no new Mega Man Killer robot to introduce in this game, although Enker, Quint, Punk, and Ballade, from the previous four games, all show up for rematches later on. The game does introduce Tango, Mega Man's robotic cat, though, as well as - of course - the Stardroids.
The shooting-fist mechanic changes things up a bit in this game, because it damages enemies both when it's travelling towards them, and whilst it's returning to your arm, too. It can also grab power-ups, as well. As you can imagine, both of these things are quite useful.
This game is the most slickly-presented of all of the Game Boy games, and it plays fantastically. It's very clear that a lot of love and care went into crafting it.
All of the Game Boy Mega Man games can be played on the Pandora using either VisualBoy Advance or GnuBoy.
Mega Man for MS-DOS
Dr. Wily has built three new Robot Masters - Dyna Man, Sonic Man, and Volt Man - and intends for them to keep Mega Man at bay while he tries to take over the world using a supercomputer he created, Crorq.
Capcom licensed a two-man outfit called Rozner Labs to bring the Mega Man series to MS-DOS, and this game was the result. Though it is called "Mega Man", it is of no relation to either the NES or Game Boy games by that name - it's a unique title, and not a port. It has some issues with its play-control, and it has some mildly ugly graphics, but overall it's an interesting curiousity, and worth checking out if you happen to like that sort of thing.
Mega Man 3 for MS-DOS
This was Rozner Labs' second MS-DOS Mega Man game. Yes, second. You'll notice that there is no Mega Man 2. It is speculated that they called this one Mega Man 3 in order to take advantage of the still-ongoing popularity of Mega Man 3 for the NES at the time. Dr. Wily is back again, this time with six new Robot Masters this time, along with a rebuilt Crorq.
Mega Man 3 for MS-DOS plays much like the first one does (and still retains some of its problems). It's notable for being the game that introduced Mega Man's ability to swim, which would not be seen again until Mega Man 8, and also for some of its Robot Masters being the first to use names that Capcom themselves later used in games that were developed by them. (Specifically, the Wave Man, Blade Man, and Oil Man in this game were the first to bear those names. A "SharkMan.EXE" also later appeared in the MegaMan Battle Network series, and FireMan.EXE from the Battle Network series was renamed to "TorchMan.EXE" in the dubbed anime tie-in, MegaMan NT Warrior, in some sort of attempt not to offend people by using the word "fireman".)
The two MS-DOS Mega Man games can be emulated perfectly on the Pandora using DOSBox.
Mega Man 7
After the events of Mega Man 6, Dr. Wily was arrested and sent to jail. However, he always knew that this might happen, and he had a backup plan waiting in the wings just in case... Mega Man 7 begins in the middle of a city that's being attacked by robots belonging to Dr. Wily, and it soon turns out that he's escaped from prison. Mega Man heads out to investigate, with his faithful robodog Rush in tow once again.
This game introduces Mega Man's rival, Bass, and Rush's rival, the wolfbot, Treble. Bass claims that they are friendly, and are trying to stop Dr. Wily's onslaught, at first, but of course, all is not what it seems to be - they were actually built by Dr. Wily! There's a reason that the Japanese subtitle for this game roughly translates as "The Fated Showndown!".
As usual, Dr. Wily is trying to take over the world using themed Robot Masters. This time, however, instead of getting to pick from eight of them on a "Brady Bunch"-style level select screen, you can only pick from four to begin with. There's a short mid-game level with a mini-boss before the other four Robot Masters become available to fight against, too. This lends a different flow to the game, and there are some secrets around depending on which order you tackle the stages in, and whether or not you revisit some of them later on. In order to get one secret item, there is a specific order in which you must visit the stages, because in some of them, you'll get to speak to Proto Man, who is there to help you out.
The Rush Adapters from Mega Man 6 that enable flight and punching scenery have been rolled into one this time - the Super Adapter. You'll need to find the letters, "R", "U", "S", and "H" as you progress through the game to earn it. And you WILL need it, so don't slack on this front.
All of the hidden secrets and neat touches make this game well worth your time. I highly recommend it.
Rockman & Forte
A mysterious robot called King has broken into the Robot Museum, and is stealing the data on all of the world's battle robots, which is stored there. He plans to create an invincible robot army with which to take over the Earth and put the humans in their place, and it's down to Rockman (Mega Man) and his rival Forte (Bass) to stop him. They must face eight Robot Masters - six new ones, and two fan-favourites from Mega Man 8 who are back for more.
This was the final Mega Man game released for the SNES, and according to its header (try opening it in a text-editor), it is officially "Rockman 8.5". It follows on from Mega Man 8, and even re-uses some of its graphics (the animation is eye-popping the first time you see it), as well as following on from the arcade game, Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters, which is set after Mega Man 8.
Generally, the game plays much like a cross between Mega Man 7 and Mega Man 8 and some of the earlier NES games, although there aren't really any hidden items to find this time as there were in 7 and 8 - you have to buy new items and power-ups at Auto's shop. They're all either very useful, or great fun to use, or sometimes both. Rockman has his usual abilities, and Forte has rapid-fire, can shoot in eight directions (but can't run while doing so), can double-jump, and can use a dash move to get around more quickly. It is easier to traverse levels with the latter, but bosses take more damage from the former.
This is actually probably my favourite game in the entire series (it's very challenging, it's got a soundtrack that I really like, and it's full of personality), and it was the first game I played on my Pandora. There is an English translation patch by AGTP, which is available
here, although personally I prefer playing it in its original language, because the translation changed a handful of things, and I personally didn't like that.
The game was officially-translated in 2003, and released on the Game Boy Advance as Mega Man & Bass.
The two SNES games can be played using Snes9x4P, and they run perfectly at the 600MHz that this PND requests.
The official translation of Rockman & Forte, Mega Man & Bass, is a Game Boy Advance game, and can be played on the Pandora using VisualBoy Advance or the GINGE-wrapped Wiz version of gpSP.
Mega Man: The Power Battle
(Sorry about the tearing, here. I couldn't get a good screenshot.)
Dr. Wily has reconstructed (or in some cases, re-stolen) the Robot Masters that he's pitched against Mega Man in the past, and sent them out to fight again.
This game for Capcom's CPS1 arcade hardware is a boss-rush title that's great for score-attacking and time-attacking - you get to play as Mega Man, Bass, or Proto Man, and it plays somewhat like a Mega Man game with the actual levels taken out. High scores are recorded whether you complete the game or not, and best times are recorded if you manage a one-credit-clear.
It has a quasi-co-operative two-player mode in which two players can help each other to defeat the bosses, but only the one who landed the death-blow gets the weapon.
MAME4All runs this game perfectly on the Pandora, with no overclocking required.
Mega Man 8
(Pardon the tearing, please - I couldn't get a great screenshot of this.)
Two robots from space crash down to Earth, one of them carrying a highly dangerous power known as Evil Energy, which can cause the evil in a person's mind to multiply until they go crazy, unless action is taken to eradicate it from them quickly. Dr. Wily hopes to leverage this energy in his latest evil scheme, and once again, Mega Man has to stop him. A new character by the name of Duo, who is one of the aforementioned robots from space, is introduced in this game - his mission in life is to eliminate the Evil Energy from the entire universe.
This 1996 game was the last numbered Mega Man installment until Mega Man 9 was released for WiiWare in 2008! Thankfully it's a very good one, so it kept us all going for a long time. The game plays as you might expect - the bosses each have weaknesses to the weapons of the other bosses, Dr. Wily has some ever more ludicrous mini-bosses to throw at you, and a vengeful Bass (who is now something of an underdog, due to being demoted to being less important than a snot monster, instead of being Dr. Wily's right-hand robot) is back for a rematch after his defeat in Mega Man 7. The soundtrack is quite different to other installments in the series, and you'll either love it or you'll hate it. It's my sort of thing, so I love it.
This game features an item shop, where you can purchase some useful items, along with some quite powerful upgrades to the Mega Buster which haven't been seen since, such as the ability to shoot a beam or arrows instead of Solar Bullets from the buster, and an upgrade for climbing ladders much faster.
Some new abilities for faithful robodog, Rush, appear as well, including the Rush Bomber (where he can be summoned to drop items from overhead - this can be very useful in desperate boss battles), and the Rush Cycle (where he acts as a motorcycle, which is great fun), amongst others.
There are also some stages which feature flight segments (using the Rush Jet, which you can no longer summon yourself) or jet-board segments which require very fast reflexes, and there are a few traditionally-animated scenes dotted throughout the game to let the player know what's going on.
One thing that Mega Man 8 is famous for is for having bad voice-acting. Whilst it's not as horrendous, in my view, as dubbing done by the same handful of voice-actors who use exactly the same generic voices in every single video game and television show that they provide voices for, it's not exactly top-notch (though it is entertaining). Accordingly, you may want to play the Japanese version, Rockman 8 - Metal Heroes, instead.
PCSX ReARMed runs this game perfectly on the Pandora, if you overclock a bit.
(Continued in next post...)
