As one would expect, Mega Man 3 was pretty successful for Capcom, despite not being quite on the same level as the success of Mega Man 2. Nevertheless, a sequel was already being put in development shortly after, even though at this point, given how the SNES was already out, they could have just as easily ended off the NES lineup with 3 and called it a day. Instead, however, they pressed on to make yet another set of games for the system, starting off with Mega Man 4.

So, this is where a majority of people would consider this to be the start of the “lesser” NES Mega Man games. Not bad by any means, but compared what had come before, people would consider this, as well as the two games to follow, very samey, repetitive, and just not as interesting as before. Honestly, I completely understand where people are coming from when they say that… but with that being said, of course I still fucking love Mega Man 4. Would I consider it as good as Mega Man 2 or 3? No, but it is still a fantastic entry in the series, and one that no fan of the franchise should pass up.

The story is pretty much the exact same, except now changing up the characters, which is fine for me, although I don’t understand why now in the 4th entry we are getting a cutscene that details the origins of Mega Man, the graphics are the best in the series so far, even if they appear very similar to that of the previous titles, the music is awesome, no surprise there, the control is just as tight, responsive, and fun as ever, and the gameplay is also just as fun and satisfying as every other mainline entry so far.

If you somehow need a reminder of how the gameplay in Mega Man works, then you should probably see a doctor for your memory loss issues. You run through stages, jumping and shooting through many enemies, getting health and weapon supplies along the way, defeating bosses, gaining their powers, and using those powers to your advantage in other stages. Just like with the previous games, though, they do add a few new features in this game to spice things up. For starters, this is the first game in the series to give you a charge shot, which is very great to see, as it helps out with dealing with a lot of the bigger threats that you will face throughout the game. Sure, it isn’t as big or effective as future charge shots from future games, but for what we have here, it is still pretty great stuff, even if the noise it makes can make other people want to permanently clog up their ears so they can never hear it. I’ve just gotten used to the sound now.

In addition to all the new powers you get throughout the game, as well as the Rush abilities still here, there are also additional hidden powers that you can find in two of the levels, those being Balloon, which is just Item 1 from Mega Man 2, and the Wire, which is a grappling hook that allows you to get to places for extra goodies. Not only does this add replay value to the game, which is always appreciated, but the items themselves are very useful in several scenarios, so it doesn’t feel like too much stuff at once. Not much else to say about the changed gameplay, except for the introduction of Eddie, who shows up in several levels to give you an item, which you can then exploit into him giving you a free E-Tank, which is nice.

In terms of problems with the game, this goes back to something I brought up in my review of Mega Man 3: the padding. In this game, as well as the next two after this, you have to go through two separate final castles to beat the game, because the plot demands that you find out about this obvious twist that you already know going in. Granted, it’s not as annoying as it is in Mega Man 3, but padding is still padding, no matter what form it comes in, and needless to say, the game doesn’t need to be extended for this long, even if I still find it to be fun and challenging. In addition, from here on out, the Rush Jet ability gets nerfed pretty hard. In Mega Man 3, you could move about freely on Rush Jet, allowing you to get to various hard-to-reach areas with little to no trouble. Here, and in every other subsequent game to come after, you can only move up and down while moving forward constantly in the direction you are facing, which isn’t terrible by any means, but it just sucks compared to what we had before. There are also other minor things, like, y’know… Toad Man, but that other stuff doesn’t really bother me too much, and none of the problems did anything to keep me from having a great time

Overall, despite the issues that it has, this is still yet again another fantastic entry in the Mega Man series, and I would definitely recommend it not just for Mega Man fans, but anyone who wants to get into the series in general. I mean, it has the origins of Mega Man in the opening cutscene, so hey, you may as well get people started on this game instead of the first one. Probably would make for a better experience.

Game #196

These boss weaknesses are getting absurd.

Like yeah, Pharaoh Man being weak to the "Time Stopper" makes sense (not the pharaoh part, he's just really fast), but why is Ring Man weak to "Pharoah Shot"? Or why is Drill Man weak to "Dive Missiles"? Don't even get me started on Dive Man being weak to "Skull Barrier", or Dust Man being weak to "Ring Boomerang".

Outside of randomly trying every possible weapon in a fight, how you figure these out is beyond me.

Mega Man 4 is easily the best of the original 6 Mega Man games, and honestly, I think at this point it's the best game in the entire series. The newly upgraded Mega Buster adds a whole lot to the base formula, as its inclusion makes it a lot easier to fight Robot Masters with your base weapon, which makes the game more replayable as you're more capable of choosing new level orders if you get bored of the basic boss order. I found myself using just the Mega Buster to go through a lot of the later bosses in the Cossack in Wily Castles and had a whole lot more fun doing that than just spamming the weaknesses. This is easily one of the best games on the NES, and additionally one of the best games out there. Absolute must play.

Specifics:
- I found the weapons in this game to be extremely well done. None of them felt broken like in Mega Man 3, and I found myself using them all the time. I think the only one I didn't end up using much was Toad Man's ability because I wanted to keep it for when I most needed it, but my cautiousness led me to never actually use it in battle.
- The music in this game feels far ahead of Mega Man 3. My favorites were Cossack Stages 3-4, Wily Stages 1-2, Pharoh Man, Dive Man, and Drill Man.
- I'm happy to see another intro cutscene in this one after the surprising lack of one in the previous title. I really loved it.
- Rush Jet has been downgraded in this game, but I honestly don't have too much of an issue with it. Yeah, I missed being able to move more freely, but I still got plenty of use out of Jet here.
- I'm very impressed this game managed to work in 2 new utility abilities alongside rush without making the new abilities feel useless. The ballon, while basically the same as Item 1 and accomplishing much of the same things Rush Coil does, was very useful in my playthrough. Though more than Balloon, Wire was by far the most useful utility in the entire game, even more useful than Rush.
- My one big issue with this game is Phase 2 of the Wily Machine. I could not figure out how to hit Wily without having to use a utility like Balloon or Rush Coil and then immediately switching out of it. How was I going to beat him if I ran out of energy on those utilities? Maybe there was some other way that I was not aware of...
- While having to refill my Pharoh Shot for the final boss was bothersome, the final boss itself was very cool.
-I really like that this game relied on newer characters rather than just having Wily return from the jump. Works especially well since he "supposedly" died in the last game getting crushed under the rubble of the falling Wily Castle. That's something I really like in 5 & 6 too, even if they do fall back on Wily for a big reveal.

10/10

From an artistic standpoint, I am of the belief that a franchise shouldn’t surpass the number of entries fitting for a trilogy. Brevity is not only the soul of wit but also a necessity to retain the magic and integrity of a series of entertainment properties. However, my passionate sentiments would cause serious humiliation at the Capcom offices, as they would laugh like hyenas as I ran out of the room in a crying frenzy like a girl who just bombed her school’s talent show. As thankful as I am for Capcom and all of the other video game conglomerates, their ultimate goal at the end of the day is to turn a profit with their creative properties. Since Capcom now found a winning formula with their Mega Man franchise, they milked that udder dry until it shriveled up and could only produce dust. I suppose Mega Man 4 was the first entry that overstayed Mega Man’s welcome on the NES considering it surpasses the number of titles that make up a solid trilogy of games, so we can attribute this game to commencing Mega Man’s downfall further into the future. However, the strange revelation that I’ve come to is that Mega Man 4 might arguably be the best game in the original series. Come to think of it, Mega Man 3 would’ve been an askew note to leave the series on, what with its unreached ambitions that fell apart in execution. Maybe a proper (and hypothetical) series send-off should signal a true return to form, and that’s certainly what Mega Man 4 offers.

Alert the presses, everyone, for Capcom decided to place another mad scientist on the pedestal of Mega Man bad guys that isn’t Dr. Wily! Approximately a year after the events of the last game, a Russian scientist named Dr. Cossack constructs eight new Robot Masters with the intention of seizing total sovereignty. I’m surprised it took Capcom this long to create a Russian villain at the helm of a megalomaniacal power surge, considering the franchise debuted in the 80s when their association with scum and villainy was at its peak. I suppose Capcom thought it would be wise to wait until the Soviet Union crumbled to feature one of their citizens in an antagonistic role so as to not sour the foreign affairs between them and Japan. Their country is only a submarine ride over from the Pacific coast of Russia, after all. Nevertheless, the fact that Capcom retired their standard bald, mustachioed bad guy here makes me beam with pride. Cossack may be committing a copycat crime here, but the slight deviation his presence represents makes a world of difference. NES franchises have been known to acquiesce to feelings of separation anxiety regarding their main villains, so I realize how hard it was for Capcom to let Wily go.

By this point in the early 90s, developers had honed the rudimentary 8-bit aesthetic into an art form. After the humble, fuzzy entry point in the first Mega Man title, Mega Man 2 made strides in elevating the visual capabilities of the NES console, just to have Mega Man 3 vomit on its contributions. One vital aspect of Mega Man 4’s return to form is the pixelated splendor displayed throughout, starting from the opening sequence. Somehow, Capcom felt that an introduction detailing the genesis point of Mega Man’s creation needed to surpass all other 8-bit cutscenes on the system by illustrating an origin story for Mega Man. A tranquil cityscape is shown from the cycle of day to dusk, with chaotic blasts of malevolent fire disrupting the peaceful atmosphere and calling Mega Man to action out of a valiant sense of justice. We also learn that his Japanese moniker “Rock” is merely the robot’s birth name and that Mega Man is his crime-fighting pseudonym. We also learn from this introduction that Mega Man’s hair was intended to be blue, thus making the initial reveal under his helmet in Mega Man 2 to be a graphical blip. As one could probably infer from the outstanding presentation here, all of the erroneous smudges in the pixels have been wiped out. The cityscape scene is gorgeous, and the following sequence where Mega Man is riding on top of a moving vehicle is spellbinding to watch.

Of course, the effort of high graphical fidelity extends to what is present during the gameplay. A pleasing color pallet was needed in the Mega Man series after Mega Man 3’s muted, flat textures that made the game look depleted. Mega Man 4’s return to form also saw the revival of the visual vibrancy seen in Mega Man 2, and thank the Lords for this. Every level in Mega Man 4 looks uniquely dazzling, meeting the standard established in Mega Man 2. Ring Man’s stage has candy neon evaporating platforms juxtaposed with some crystalline chrome architecture. Pharoah Man’s tomb is built with a tan-colored brick that looks appropriately weathered enough for an ancient construction, and the flow of the sinking sand is borderline hypnotizing. The showering rain effect in Toad Man’s stage is only distracting on a mechanical level, and Dive Man’s teal foreground compliments the water splendidly. The lavender color of Skull Man’s stage probably doesn’t make sense from a thematic standpoint, but I can’t deny that its contrast with the bleached skeletal platforms is striking.

I suppose what is more important about the new crop of levels is their level design. Mega Man 4 doesn’t do too much to deviate from the series' tried and true 2D platforming from point A to B where the Robot Master’s domain lies except for one true stride in ingenuity. Just because Mega Man’s trajectory is fairly straightforward doesn’t mean that each level should offer nothing but a straight line with enemies to halt progression. For the first time in series history, the levels will offer alternate paths for the player to take, usually signified by both ascending and descending ladders. Once Mega Man climbs one of these ladders in either direction on the Y-axis, surviving enemy fire and the various pratfalls will eventually lead Mega Man to the same result as the standard pathway. Sometimes, these alternate passages lead Mega Man to dead ends and the extra challenges before he hits a brick wall often lead to goodies like E-Tanks and health upgrades, rewarding the players for their troubles. God only knows we can’t rely on Dr. Light’s new, little support bot Eddie to supply Mega Man with what he needs because the little guy seems to have difficulties discerning whether or not Mega Man’s health or energy is low. He’s too adorably pathetic to chastise, really. Speaking of difficulties, Mega Man 4 still retains that classic NES challenge that was absent in Mega Man 2 compared to the two games that border it in the main series timeline. The game presents a smattering of dangerous sections like riding on robot enemies over pits of spikes like the bouncy grasshoppers in Bright Man’s stage and the floating platforms in Pharaoh Man’s stage. It’s best to shoot first between a chasm because a cap enemy will fly upward and knock Mega Man out of his airborne velocity to his untimely demise. The midway miniboss robots resembling animals often proved to be formidable obstacles to my goal, such as the hulking whales in Dive Man’s stage and the hippos in Ring Man’s stage that spit missiles comfortably from their high perches. Because of all of these impediments prove to cause a small amount of grief to the player, Mega Man 2’s one big criticism of being too easy cannot be applied here.

Good luck trying to find the correct order to defeat Mega Man 4’s Robot Masters, for this lineup is when the lineup started becoming abstract. Like Mega Man 3, all of these Robot Masters were submitted by Japanese children via a contest and the best of the bunch were granted life by the developers. I don’t know how some kid living in Japan in the early 90s knew what a Pharaoh was, but maybe that's how advanced their education system is. Drill Man is an inspired ground-type Robot Master in the same vein as Gutsman and Hard Man, and his drill bomb weapon is like a more manageable version of the Crash Bomb. Skull Man is the coolest one here from a design standpoint, but I’m not enthused by his weapon being a recycled version of Wood Man’s leaf shield. What makes the weapon worse is that it’s Dive Man’s weakness, and his apt dive maneuver makes sure that plenty of contact damage will occur while fighting him. Bright Man copies Flash Man’s time freeze move, and Dust Man’s mound of vacuumed trash is an effective cluster bomb. God bless Toad Man, for the developers inadvertently made him into a spongy whelp of a Robot Master AND his acid rain weapon clears the screen. Guess which Robot Master I recommend tackling first? Overall, I can’t find too much fault with Cossack’s coalition of Robot Masters. They all have interesting designs and none of their weapons fall under the category of useless junk (points directly at Top Man from Mega Man 3).

Fortunately, if the player isn’t content with using any of these weapons, maybe because they feel the Robot Master weapons peaked with the Metal Blade as I do, Mega Man 4 provides a suitable alternative. This game’s innovative stride in updating Mega Man’s battle prowess is the new addition of the charge shot. By holding down the shoot button on the controller, the collective energy needed for a regular shot of Mega Man’s base beam builds up inside his being and radiates all over him. Releasing Mega Man’s edged shot will unleash a single burst of energy much bigger and much more lethal than the piddly lemon drops it normally sputters out. I probably use the standard blaster more often than most people who have played a Mega Man game, so this addition is a godsend. I’ve always appreciated the variety in store with Mega Man sucking up his enemy's abilities, but I have to admit that pausing the game to cycle through the options can be a tad irksome. Revving up the blaster to blow through enemies that have stronger defenses is incredibly convenient and satisfying, and is just as crucial to Mega Man’s evolution as the slide move (which also returns from Mega Man 3). If it could shoot in the same number of directions as the Metal Blade, I’d never use any of the alternate weapons.

Whether or not using the enhanced blaster or figuring out a Robot Masters's specific weakness works for you, it still culminates in climbing the castle of a wicked scientific genius. This time, it’s the blonde, bearded Cossack instead of Wily’s wild eyebrows. When storming through Cossack’s castle, each level seems deceptively easier than the last. The castle offers some substantial sections involving Rush’s mechanical aid, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief that the Yellow Devil doesn’t make his return to pummel me to oblivion. Still, roaming through the fortress of a madman as the climax of a video game on the NES should warrant great difficulties. My suspicions unraveled with the appalling revelation that Cossack is a red-herring and that Dr. Wily has been using him as a scapegoat the entire time. Naturally, it’s when Wily reveals himself that the apropos difficulty curve reveals itself too, as Wily’s final fight in Mega Man 4 is the most irritating one so far. The weak spot on Wily’s new death machine is high enough that Mega Man must strain himself trying to reach it, and finding Wily in complete darkness while being confined to using Pharaoh Man’s weapon conjures up unpleasant memories of having to use Crash Man’s weapon in the conclusive fight in Mega Man 2, showing that the developers didn’t learn from their mistake.

God dammit. So much for subversion. The old saying that old dogs never learn new tricks is just as applicable to video game franchises, which is why they tend to struggle with innovation past the third entry. Yet, Mega Man 4 seemed like it could’ve at least gone against the grain with the opportunity to do the bare minimum of putting another antagonist in the front seat. Alas, it seems like Dr. Wily will always be the nagging force of oppression like his NES contemporaries Bowser and Ganondorf. Up until this point, I was enjoying Mega Man 4 vastly more than Mega Man 3. Mega Man 4’s back to basics after Mega Man 3 shot to the moon and missed by a mile making for the most balanced of Mega Man titles so far. It’s as smooth as Mega Man 2 was without the few discrepancies that sullied its near-perfect status. If reusing the same villain in a bait-and-switch routine is the only sniggle the game has in a series filled with unfair, broken bullshit, Capcom has more than legitimized Mega Man 4’s existence. Quit while you're ahead, guys.

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Attribution: https://erockreviews.com

It's fun, and the stages are still pretty memorable.

The soundtrack's not as good as the second and third game. Robot master powers are really hit or miss.

Story is goofy and fun. Solid game overall

Mega Man's 4th NES romp introduces the charge shot for the buster, making this the first Mega Man game with a "complete" moveset. Although not as impactful as the slide introduced in MM3, this does still change the way you'll approach most stages and bosses.

Stages are much more setpiece-driven than before, having a lot of midbosses to utilise your charge shot against. The stage design is overall another step up in quality here, utilising more elements of conventionally "good game design", but there are more frustrating moments compared to MM3, including some complete shameless bullshit like the kaizo traps at the start of Dust Man's stage.

The robot masters feel as though they hit a lot harder compared to earlier games, which was probably a result of capcom acknowledging that the bosses need to be tuned differently if Mega Man has a charge shot, since the presence of the charge shot inherently makes boss weaknesses less important than before. Some of the bosses are the best the series has had up to this point, such as Pharaoh Man and Magnet Man, but others like Dive Man feel like a bit of a crapshoot given how fast they move and how much contact damage they deal.

So yeah, MM4 is another good blast of fun for fans of the series, but there's still a sense of something missing with the experience as a whole. Honestly the best thing about MM4 is the simple fact that it has the first set of actually good wily castle stages in the series, which is even more important for this game considering that it effectively has two wily castles.

While I played Mega Man 1-3 a bunch as a kid on 3DS, I never really got that far into this one, and playing it now I see why. Just kinda forgettable, none of the music really stuck out besides Dr. Cossack's theme, and the powers and robot masters are kinda meh. At least it introduced the charge shot.

One thing I will say though, the game looks incredible, I'm honestly shocked this is a NES game, it looks more like one of those NES-inspired games without the strict limits of the original hardware.