Mega Man is indeed one of the most memorable, yet hard games ever created by Capcom. With the success of the first game, it spawned many sequels, spinoffs such as the Mega Man X and Mega Man Zero series. It was a golden age for video games during the 1980's and the 1990's
Plot. In the distant future, a brilliant scientist named Dr. Light began the construction of fully operational human-like robots to perform house duties and other jobs. He creates a robot named Mega, who at first is a household robot along with his sister, Roll. Dr. Wily, builds a secret base in the pacific, and creates robots in an attempt to conquer the world. When Wily begins his conquest, Dr. Light converts Mega into the ultimate protector of the world, Mega Man. Now Mega Man must stop Dr. Wily and his robots to save the world.
Players recover health with energy pellets and capsules, which are yellow and white colored, and they can recover energy weapons with blue colored weapon pellets. Mega Man can die if the health bar goes down to zero after taking many hits, falling to a precipice, and even falling into spikes.
Concept. The purpose of the game is to guide Mega Man throughout six different levels in the beginning, which involves destroying Wily's robot masters. After they're destroyed, the gain access to Dr. Wily's secret lab, where they must fight harder bosses, a clone, and even the bosses from before. After defeating all of them, they confront Dr. Wily himself, which is very hard.
Design. Akira Kitamura was the designer of the game while Keiji Inafune was the director. The game is 2D sidescrolling game, and characters are rendered in sprites. Now the stages look fantastic, and the designs are great. Great job Capcom!
Tips and Strategies. Each boss has a weakness as said in the gameplay. Players can either beat bosses with the Mega Buster, or with the weapons that they are very weak against. There will be stages that will make you unleash your inner Mike Tyson against the wall, so you have to be careful in timing your jump and speed. The Guts Man stage can be a nerve-wrecking pain in the ass with the moving platforms.
Legacy. After the success of Mega Man, it went on to spawn sequels for the NES, SNES, Game Boy, and so on. Mega Man had various spinoffs such as the Mega Man X, Mega Man Zero, ZX, and Battle Network series. Mega Man was so popular that it even spawned a cartoon series, which only lasted for two seasons, and he is also seen in the cartoon "Captain N: The Game Master". The original Mega Man game was released in August 28, 2008 on the Wii Virtual Console.
Rantings. The Guts Man stage is one of the many places that I hated because of moving platforms, and suddenly switched down. Also in terms of the enemies, the one that I truly hated the most was the Big Eye, a jumping robot that smashes its enemies, and I can't stand him after all those years playing this game. What I did not like was the score of the game, but at least they removed it after the first game.
Good Aspects. Mega Man continues to be a great game after its release, it was a time where video games had a golden age. The game's story is also memorable, and it has very high replay value that players will enjoy. If you have a Wii, then download Mega Man for 500 Wii Points on the Shop Channel. Also, the music was incredible, and epic.
Overall. My final score for Mega Man is an 8 out of 10