Mega Man Anniversary Collection for GameCube
- ESRB Descriptor: Animated Violence
- ESRB Rating: E - (Everyone)
- Publisher: Capcom
- Genre: Action Adventure
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1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Mega Man Anniversary is Totally Great
Pros
All the old Mega Man games in one, plus a few freebies.
Cons
B to Jump, A to Shoot. Whose idea was that!?
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Are you ready to go back to Mega Man?
In the olden days, video games used to be highly addictive. We hadn't come to expect non-linear stories, interaction, FMV's, multiple routes, or all the number crunching.
A simple jumping and shooting orgy was enough to satiate our innermost desires. Mom and I would spend hour upon hour playing through all of Contra as much as six or seven times in a row. We'd use the 30-man code, and we'd end up with over 40 lives in reserve each. We had it all memorized. But it was a simple game that didn't ask much of the brain, but rather made mush of the brain.
Another such series that grabbed me was the Mega Man series. I don't even remember whose idea it was to rent Mega Man 2, but that was my first Mega Man experience, and the addiction hasn't let up for all this time.
Now, we have the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, which has been released in a Play Station version as well. But seeing as how the original Capcom titles were played on the NES, it only feels right (to me, anyway) to play them on the Game Cube today.
Mega Man Anniversary (MMA) contains 10 titles, starting with the original NES games, Mega Man 1-6. The Super NES gave us Mega Man 7. Mega Man 8, which was originally released on the Play Station and the Sega Saturn, appears here as well. I never went farther than Mega Man 5 before now, out of laziness. But it's a delight to finally have the chance to move on to 6, 7, 8, and more.
Two more titles (which have to be unlocked by completing some of the previous Mega Mans) never made it to the states, but were popular arcade games in Japan. They make their presence known here -- Mega Man: The Power Battle and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters. Basically, they are like any other Mega Man game except that the robots don't have stages. It's more like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter where you simply fight the robots (same as you would in any of the others, but you can use Proto Man and Bass as well) while trying to do it in the shortest time, get the highest score, etc.
The way you save your game threw me for a little bit. I was somehow under the impression that you started a single game file, and went through the 8 Mega Mans in sequence on that single saved "slot". So I finished the first Mega Man, went back to load that game and play MM2. But when I went to "Load Game", the only game it would let me play was Mega Man. Then I realized what it actually is -- you have a separate save slot for each individual game. Once you're done with one, you start a "New Game" and go to the next one.
So what's the big idea?
The basic idea behind each Mega Man game is that you fight several different Robots, each with its own name that indicates what the Robot's power is, like Cut Man (who attacks with spinning scissors) or Bomb Man (who attacks with WMD's). Once beaten, the Robot forfeits its power over to you. And as it turns out, each robot is weak against another robot's power. So it's up to you to discover which power works against which robot, or if you prefer, beat them all with just your arm cannon, a fun and diverting challenge in itself.
Common Sense
In the first couple of games, you could often use common sense -- Ice Man's power works against Fire Man (Ice puts out fire), Cut Man's power works against Elec Man (Cut the wires), etc. But as the series progressed and we were introduced to the likes of Needle Man, Gemini Man, Skull Man, or perhaps the most embarrassing robot of them all, Tomahawk Man (Braves won the Series that year, go figure), it became more a matter of trial and error.
Control Freaks
For the most part, Mega Man himself looks identical through the first six games. The controls, as well, feel mostly the same throughout the series. A slight stiffness is there in the first Mega Man, but by the time you get to MM3, the controls have completely "loosened out". At this point in the series, Mega Man has also gained the ability to slide, summon his pet dog Rush, and he climbs ladders faster.
Several variations on the control scheme come into effect, such as a dip in gravity while underwater (or in Star Man's stage), bouncing around on springs, riding the Rush Marine/Jet, or trying to tackle the obscenely brilliant Gravity Man stage.
My biggest problem with this entire game in general is that they fiddled up the shooting and jumping buttons. Used to be A to jump, B to shoot. Here, it's vice-versa, and there is no way to change it. Adapting is easy enough, but if you stop for too long, like a few seconds, your instincts (especially if, like myself, you have 13 years exp. doing it the other way) might make you push the wrong button. Even as late into the series as MM6, I still occasionally shot a bullet and walked right off the edge.
Bang Bang
The shooting sound effect, which you will hear the most, evolves (over the course of 1-6) from a "blimy" ascending bleep to a smoother parabolic blip, and back again. Enemy explosions are mostly the same metallic shriek until you get to MM5, in which they are considerably blown up to sound more like "SHPWEEEEEYU!" Each individual weapon has its own sound effect; some of those are pretty neat. But the real sound quality to me is in the music.
♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫
I used to deliberately take the Elec Man, Bomb Man, and Crash Man stages as slowly as I possibly could, because I just couldn't get enough of the music. Hard to imagine, but so much of my musical taste came from what I heard in these games. Some of my other favorite musical themes come from the stages of Bubble Man, Magnet Man, Shadow Man, and Bright Man. The Dr. Wily Castle themes in MM3 (along with the boss music there) were also excellent, especially in the last two stages. Gives me chills just thinking about it. MM4 had great Dr. Wily stage music too.
I noticed that on the "Normal" difficulty setting, the damage you dole out in MM2, to the Robots, is only half what it used to be. Oddly, I didn't notice this in any of the other games, but for what it's worth, it seems to be an improvement. MM2 was always, to me, the easiest in terms of fighting robots because you could hit them faster, and the fact that your arm cannon would take 4 out of 28 bars off of Air Man's life gauge seemed a little ridiculous. Well, now it takes off 2, which is better. But this also means that Metal Man won't throw the white flag over a single blast of his own weapon anymore!
It gets to the point, though, where things start to get a little old. You get sick of every single Robot starting off the battle by jumping towards you. You get sick of waiting for the Save pop-up to come and go every time you finish a stage or get a Game Over. You get sick of going after some weird scientist when you know it's ultimately going to end up being Dr. Wily anyway. You get sick of the same final battle in 4, 5, and 6. But these are just quibbles.
Super NES -- Mega Man 7
This game is considerably tougher, as it brings on a newly rendered Mega Man with a far more animated walk. You don't really know exactly how far off that edge you can walk without falling, or if you can make that jump. But the superb graphics do more than make up for it, and the 16-bit Robots look better than ever, each with a cool stance. I like how Shade Man bows before the battle.
There are also a buttload of secrets to be found here, many of which require you to go through certain stages more than once. In some cases, you must have Rush sniff around to dig stuff up. There is some dialogue, too. In between stages, Mega Man "mingles" with Dr. Light a bit about the weapon he just earned.
You also collect bolts which can be used as currency to buy 1-UPs, Energy Tanks, and some other handy stuff. To access the shop on the Game Cube version, press Z on the Stage Selection screen. It'll even take you back there to load up in between the Dr. Wily stages, just incase.
Mega Man 8
I didn't know how I was ever going to get used to this. MM8 opens with an anime sequence that's a couple minutes long. Basically like the FMV sequences in a role-playing game, but it's a cartoon. The best graphics to be found are right here, although some stages (Clown Man in particular) do tend to get cluttered. Still, it's loads of fun pitting yourself against these humongous robots and beating the living crap out of them. MM8 is actually quite easy, to be one that I had never played before.
In The End
If not for their messing up the controls, this would've been an easy five stars. But even now, after two weeks, every just so often I find myself panicking in the heat of the moment and going back to pressing the wrong buttons. Blagcrooblumpk indeed.
But still, I mean come on. 10 Mega Man games, some of which once costed upwards of $40 themselves, and I was able to pick this whole collection up for $30. For fairweather and diehard fans alike, the Mega Man Anniversary Collection is a priceless pickup.
A simple jumping and shooting orgy was enough to satiate our innermost desires. Mom and I would spend hour upon hour playing through all of Contra as much as six or seven times in a row. We'd use the 30-man code, and we'd end up with over 40 lives in reserve each. We had it all memorized. But it was a simple game that didn't ask much of the brain, but rather made mush of the brain.
Another such series that grabbed me was the Mega Man series. I don't even remember whose idea it was to rent Mega Man 2, but that was my first Mega Man experience, and the addiction hasn't let up for all this time.
Now, we have the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, which has been released in a Play Station version as well. But seeing as how the original Capcom titles were played on the NES, it only feels right (to me, anyway) to play them on the Game Cube today.
Mega Man Anniversary (MMA) contains 10 titles, starting with the original NES games, Mega Man 1-6. The Super NES gave us Mega Man 7. Mega Man 8, which was originally released on the Play Station and the Sega Saturn, appears here as well. I never went farther than Mega Man 5 before now, out of laziness. But it's a delight to finally have the chance to move on to 6, 7, 8, and more.
Two more titles (which have to be unlocked by completing some of the previous Mega Mans) never made it to the states, but were popular arcade games in Japan. They make their presence known here -- Mega Man: The Power Battle and Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters. Basically, they are like any other Mega Man game except that the robots don't have stages. It's more like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter where you simply fight the robots (same as you would in any of the others, but you can use Proto Man and Bass as well) while trying to do it in the shortest time, get the highest score, etc.
The way you save your game threw me for a little bit. I was somehow under the impression that you started a single game file, and went through the 8 Mega Mans in sequence on that single saved "slot". So I finished the first Mega Man, went back to load that game and play MM2. But when I went to "Load Game", the only game it would let me play was Mega Man. Then I realized what it actually is -- you have a separate save slot for each individual game. Once you're done with one, you start a "New Game" and go to the next one.
So what's the big idea?
The basic idea behind each Mega Man game is that you fight several different Robots, each with its own name that indicates what the Robot's power is, like Cut Man (who attacks with spinning scissors) or Bomb Man (who attacks with WMD's). Once beaten, the Robot forfeits its power over to you. And as it turns out, each robot is weak against another robot's power. So it's up to you to discover which power works against which robot, or if you prefer, beat them all with just your arm cannon, a fun and diverting challenge in itself.
Common Sense
In the first couple of games, you could often use common sense -- Ice Man's power works against Fire Man (Ice puts out fire), Cut Man's power works against Elec Man (Cut the wires), etc. But as the series progressed and we were introduced to the likes of Needle Man, Gemini Man, Skull Man, or perhaps the most embarrassing robot of them all, Tomahawk Man (Braves won the Series that year, go figure), it became more a matter of trial and error.
Control Freaks
For the most part, Mega Man himself looks identical through the first six games. The controls, as well, feel mostly the same throughout the series. A slight stiffness is there in the first Mega Man, but by the time you get to MM3, the controls have completely "loosened out". At this point in the series, Mega Man has also gained the ability to slide, summon his pet dog Rush, and he climbs ladders faster.
Several variations on the control scheme come into effect, such as a dip in gravity while underwater (or in Star Man's stage), bouncing around on springs, riding the Rush Marine/Jet, or trying to tackle the obscenely brilliant Gravity Man stage.
My biggest problem with this entire game in general is that they fiddled up the shooting and jumping buttons. Used to be A to jump, B to shoot. Here, it's vice-versa, and there is no way to change it. Adapting is easy enough, but if you stop for too long, like a few seconds, your instincts (especially if, like myself, you have 13 years exp. doing it the other way) might make you push the wrong button. Even as late into the series as MM6, I still occasionally shot a bullet and walked right off the edge.
Bang Bang
The shooting sound effect, which you will hear the most, evolves (over the course of 1-6) from a "blimy" ascending bleep to a smoother parabolic blip, and back again. Enemy explosions are mostly the same metallic shriek until you get to MM5, in which they are considerably blown up to sound more like "SHPWEEEEEYU!" Each individual weapon has its own sound effect; some of those are pretty neat. But the real sound quality to me is in the music.
♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫
I used to deliberately take the Elec Man, Bomb Man, and Crash Man stages as slowly as I possibly could, because I just couldn't get enough of the music. Hard to imagine, but so much of my musical taste came from what I heard in these games. Some of my other favorite musical themes come from the stages of Bubble Man, Magnet Man, Shadow Man, and Bright Man. The Dr. Wily Castle themes in MM3 (along with the boss music there) were also excellent, especially in the last two stages. Gives me chills just thinking about it. MM4 had great Dr. Wily stage music too.
I noticed that on the "Normal" difficulty setting, the damage you dole out in MM2, to the Robots, is only half what it used to be. Oddly, I didn't notice this in any of the other games, but for what it's worth, it seems to be an improvement. MM2 was always, to me, the easiest in terms of fighting robots because you could hit them faster, and the fact that your arm cannon would take 4 out of 28 bars off of Air Man's life gauge seemed a little ridiculous. Well, now it takes off 2, which is better. But this also means that Metal Man won't throw the white flag over a single blast of his own weapon anymore!
It gets to the point, though, where things start to get a little old. You get sick of every single Robot starting off the battle by jumping towards you. You get sick of waiting for the Save pop-up to come and go every time you finish a stage or get a Game Over. You get sick of going after some weird scientist when you know it's ultimately going to end up being Dr. Wily anyway. You get sick of the same final battle in 4, 5, and 6. But these are just quibbles.
Super NES -- Mega Man 7
This game is considerably tougher, as it brings on a newly rendered Mega Man with a far more animated walk. You don't really know exactly how far off that edge you can walk without falling, or if you can make that jump. But the superb graphics do more than make up for it, and the 16-bit Robots look better than ever, each with a cool stance. I like how Shade Man bows before the battle.
There are also a buttload of secrets to be found here, many of which require you to go through certain stages more than once. In some cases, you must have Rush sniff around to dig stuff up. There is some dialogue, too. In between stages, Mega Man "mingles" with Dr. Light a bit about the weapon he just earned.
You also collect bolts which can be used as currency to buy 1-UPs, Energy Tanks, and some other handy stuff. To access the shop on the Game Cube version, press Z on the Stage Selection screen. It'll even take you back there to load up in between the Dr. Wily stages, just incase.
Mega Man 8
I didn't know how I was ever going to get used to this. MM8 opens with an anime sequence that's a couple minutes long. Basically like the FMV sequences in a role-playing game, but it's a cartoon. The best graphics to be found are right here, although some stages (Clown Man in particular) do tend to get cluttered. Still, it's loads of fun pitting yourself against these humongous robots and beating the living crap out of them. MM8 is actually quite easy, to be one that I had never played before.
In The End
If not for their messing up the controls, this would've been an easy five stars. But even now, after two weeks, every just so often I find myself panicking in the heat of the moment and going back to pressing the wrong buttons. Blagcrooblumpk indeed.
But still, I mean come on. 10 Mega Man games, some of which once costed upwards of $40 themselves, and I was able to pick this whole collection up for $30. For fairweather and diehard fans alike, the Mega Man Anniversary Collection is a priceless pickup.
