Now this is just getting ridiculous. Doubling the the number of Mega Man games on the NES after overstepping the amount fitting for a nicely succinct trilogy almost makes Mega Mans 4-6 its own trilogy separate from the first three games. What defining name shall we refer to Mega Man 4-6 to codify this selection of the series' latter half on its debut system? “The charge shot trilogy?” “The Dr. Wily bait-and-switch trilogy?” “The semi-useless Eddie trilogy?” There are so many different possibilities. All jokes aside, I’m actually glad that Capcom rounded out their flagship franchise with their blue robot boy with six games. Mega Man 5 would've been a rather tepid note to end Mega Man’s tenure on the NES, for its contributions to the long-running series amounted to nothing of substantial growth to the Mega Man formula. I never expected Mega Man 6 to reinvent the wheel, especially after Mega Man 5 inadvertently proved that Mega Man’s full potential peaked with the fourth entry. My optimism regarding Mega Man 6 stemmed from the fact that Capom now had the opportunity to rectify the mistakes they made in Mega Man 5 in their attempts to give it some fresh discernibility. Mega Man 6 could now cement Mega Man’s legacy on the console that started it with something comparable to the apex point that was Mega Man 4. Alas, Mega Man 6 is yet another entry marked by unnecessary changes, but at least the changes it makes are far more interesting and involved than those from the previous games.
The entourage of robot masters this time around is an especially inspired bunch. Instead of leaving the creative process to a few lucky Japanese kids via a contest, the cohesive theme for these eight robot masters is that they all vaguely represent a different nation in the real world based on both their physical designs and levels. One might hear this idea and facepalm considering that the developers callously drew parallels between a sensitive world event where several innocent people died with Napalm Man’s Vietnam War-theme level in the previous game. However, the pack of international mechanical marvels is constructed with far more tact and respect. Tomahawk Man represents the deep cultural heritage of the native people in America, Blizzard Man is a comment on how absurdly frigid the northern land of Canada can be, and Yamato Man is the robotic samurai that Capcom felt would be emblematic of their own culture. The others are up to speculation because their origins are not detailed in the game’s manual for some reason. If I had to guess, Plant Man is Latin American because of his tropical level and the rose’s affiliation with their dances, Knight Man is a chivalrous artifact of Middle Ages England, Centaur Man is a Greek mythology reference, Wind Man correlates with China’s reputation for wind energy, and Flame Man’s Indian identity can be assumed from his turban and by the fact that food from that country is scorchingly spicy. The nationalities of this array of robots is also relevant because they are the worldly representatives in the newly founded “Global Robot Alliance,” a UN of sorts established after Dr. Wily has attempted to upset the balance between the machines and their human creators numerous times. Speaking of Mega Man’s perennial antagonist, his new ploy to disrupt the order of this organization is to construct a tournament of champions between the eight robot masters for the prize of sole representation as the world’s robotic protector. Yes, the game introduces a villain named “Mr. X” as its diabolical schemer, but I absolutely refuse to humor the notion of another Mega Man antagonist for a THIRD fucking time. Besides, Mr. X’s resemblance to Dr. Wily is uncanny, so even the developers knew that they couldn’t maintain their own charade. While I’ve given up on taking the Mega Man conflict scenarios seriously, at least the themes of the robot masters behind the plot are intriguing. Capcom crafted a slew of cool robot masters with a cultural theme one tasteful degree above Nintendo’s Punch-Out!
Squeezing six games onto one console has an implication that a lot of time has passed since Mega Man’s birth in 1987. By late 1993 when Mega Man 6 was released, the SNES successor to the NES was well into its course as Nintendo’s primary soldier in the console wars. In fact, the SNES had been available on store shelves for so long at this point that those interested in playing Mega Man 6 most likely had to dig through their closets and blow off the dust that their old NES system had freshly collected. Some may ponder why anyone would be interested in regressing to the outdated guard briefly when the future was in full swing and why Capcom didn’t bother to simply develop Mega Man 6 for the current console. From another perspective, Mega Man 6 had the advantageous position of being a practically posthumous period release on the NES because it could comfortably relax in the house that all of the preceding NES titles (including previous Mega Man games) had painstakingly crafted with their blood, sweat, and tears. It’s a smaller house than the SNES that was under construction at the time, but a fully erected living space is far cozier. Due to the lack of mechanical strain, Mega Man 6 looks fantastic from a graphical standpoint. Every 8-bit texture that renders the eight robot master stages and the interior of Dr. Wily’s castle is refined to near-perfect, pixelated perfection. The foliage of the hanging rainforest trees is remarkably green and textured to the point of seeing every individual leaf. The pistons holding together the man-made foundation of Tomahawk Man’s stage are as finely detailed as the natural crags of the rock formations outside. Every star over the background city seen from the entrance point of Wily’s castle shines brighter from that view than the scene of space in Star Man’s stage from the last game. Mega Man 6 proves that 8-bit graphics are a legitimate aesthetic.
What interests me more pertaining to the levels in Mega Man 6 has less to do with how they are graphically rendered and more with their design. Mega Man 6 unfortunately may only offer a couple of alternate routes to change the trajectory of the destination to a robot master as it is this game’s means of unlocking Beat. Still, at least the game puts a calculated effort into diversifying the straightaway trek for every other level. If one can recall back to the first Mega Man game, they’ll remember that the weapons did more than act as alternatives to the blaster and counter the element for the contrasting robot master. Mega Man 6 continues what was abandoned in Mega Man’s debut by blocking extra lives and energy/weapon tanks behind large, compact cubes of junk. To unearth these impediments to obtain these items, Mega Man needs a gadget that is not granted to him until he defeats a certain number of robot masters. The catch is that there are instances where vital pickups are obscured behind these crude formations across every level, so the player is persuaded to replay the levels to gather all of the goodies. Also, confining a hefty quantity of these types of items to these out-of-reach nooks and crannies means they are in less abundance, so the player cannot suck down a twelve-pack of energy tanks when they are slightly wounded anymore.
Which item allows Mega Man to manipulate the mounds of mechanical dirt? I guess how Mega Man 6 defines its strides of innovation is with the alternate suits that replace Rush. When selecting either the Jet Suit or Power Suit in the menu upon unlocking them, Rush appears as he converges with Mega Man, turning Mega Man’s armor to the crimson sheen of his canine companion. The Power Suit is bulky and is the method of disposing of what stands between Mega Man and his rightful energy tanks. Holding the attack button will launch a deadly blast of energy, but it is constricted to a short range. The Jet Suit, on the other hand, allows Mega Man to soar gracefully like a rocket blasting off into space, but more akin to one of the hobby models that craps out after a few seconds. The only caveat is that the charge shot will be unavailable, but we’ve already ventured through three Mega Man games before the charge shot was even conceived and managed to survive. The primary perk of the suits is that they refill their fuel automatically upon depletion instead of needing to walk over an energy replenisher and invite all players to keep this apparatus on at all times as I did. The alternate suits are the new implementation of the Mega Man formula that sticks out in my mind for their usefulness, but it still raises a few questions. Does Rush meld into Mega Man with the mechanical malleability of a Transformer, or does he shed his modular armor for Mega Man to use as a token of assistance? Is he just a simple dog underneath the suit, running off to Dr. Light’s house to chase squirrels and drag his ass across the carpet whenever Mega Man is borrowing the outer layer of his body?
The alternate suits are also a welcome addition to Mega Man 6 because they compensate for the charge shot’s comparatively limp power capacity. Upon charging the standard blaster, searing energy still flows throughout Mega Man’s being, but the range and impact of the fully charged release feel far less impactful when dealing with enemies. The convenient crutch that I’ve been using for the past two games has been nerfed, probably an intentional effort from the developers to coax me into shuffling through the robot master’s weapons outside of their battles. Overall, the robot master weapons in Mega Man 6 do nothing to impress because a lot of them are recycled from previous games. Plant Man has a shield that performs exactly what one would expect, Flame Man has another fire weapon, Knight Man’s projectile morning star top and the Yamato Spear both have a straightforward trajectory, and Centaur Man’s flash weapon should inspire strong memories of a certain robot master from Mega Man 2. The “blizzard” attack barely amounts to a fucking flurry. While I’m completely underwhelmed by what’s in Mega Man’s arsenal, at least there are no impractical weapons such as Stone Man’s or any effortless screen obliterators like Gravity Man’s, both from Mega Man 5. Because the developers knew that the player would be exhausting more of the ancillary fuel from the weapons, Mega Man 6 introduces an energy balancer that supplies the most depleted weapon with energy from another to fully refill it. Thanks, Capcom. I wish they thought of this when the Metal Blade was still in Mega Man’s grasp.
I’m also underwhelmed by Dr. Wily in Mega Man 6, and it isn’t because Mr. X reveals himself to be Wily with more facial hair because I’m not a brain-dead simpleton. The two castles that lead up to Dr. Wily are perfectly challenging, with some spiky blindspots during some drops that vanquished me more than I’m willing to admit that reminded me fondly of Quick Man. I’m referring to the final duel between Mega Man and the mad doctor that takes place in three stages, as par for the course. Again, the first two stages see Dr. Wily attempt to crush Mega Man under the weight and force of stomping him, and then the third stage involves Dr. Wily disappearing periodically to give Mega Man a fleeting chance to aim a shot while dodging a series of cyclones. Fortunately, the upward angle of the Silver Tomahawk allows Mega Man to end the all-too-familiar fight in seconds. After experiencing deja vu from Wily’s final fight from the previous game, Mega Man mixes up the result considerably and finally puts the scourge of the robotic world under arrest, tying him up with rope as if he’s planning on placing him on the train tracks. I’m almost proud of Mega Man for placing Dr. Wily in custody, but it's taken him too goddamn long to do what is necessary for me to seriously commend him.
I guess Mega Man 6 triumphs over the previous Mega Man game in its commitment to reverse some aspects back to the earlier entries. Mega Man 5 was a facile experience with too heavy of a reliance on the booming charge shot and an inexhaustible amount of energy tanks at the player’s disposal. Hiding the items behind walls and channeling less firepower into the charge shot so as not to eclipse the series staple of robot master weapons started to remind me of the challenge I had come to associate with Mega Man. Still, the lack of inspiration with the weapons despite the solid theming of their users along with Dr. Wily phoning in his final challenge against Mega Man is further indication that Mega Man had run its course on the console it was born onto. While Mega Man 6 is still a more respectable experience than the last entry, the series is still long overdue to wrap things up like the series hero eventually did with his mortal nemesis.
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Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com
The entourage of robot masters this time around is an especially inspired bunch. Instead of leaving the creative process to a few lucky Japanese kids via a contest, the cohesive theme for these eight robot masters is that they all vaguely represent a different nation in the real world based on both their physical designs and levels. One might hear this idea and facepalm considering that the developers callously drew parallels between a sensitive world event where several innocent people died with Napalm Man’s Vietnam War-theme level in the previous game. However, the pack of international mechanical marvels is constructed with far more tact and respect. Tomahawk Man represents the deep cultural heritage of the native people in America, Blizzard Man is a comment on how absurdly frigid the northern land of Canada can be, and Yamato Man is the robotic samurai that Capcom felt would be emblematic of their own culture. The others are up to speculation because their origins are not detailed in the game’s manual for some reason. If I had to guess, Plant Man is Latin American because of his tropical level and the rose’s affiliation with their dances, Knight Man is a chivalrous artifact of Middle Ages England, Centaur Man is a Greek mythology reference, Wind Man correlates with China’s reputation for wind energy, and Flame Man’s Indian identity can be assumed from his turban and by the fact that food from that country is scorchingly spicy. The nationalities of this array of robots is also relevant because they are the worldly representatives in the newly founded “Global Robot Alliance,” a UN of sorts established after Dr. Wily has attempted to upset the balance between the machines and their human creators numerous times. Speaking of Mega Man’s perennial antagonist, his new ploy to disrupt the order of this organization is to construct a tournament of champions between the eight robot masters for the prize of sole representation as the world’s robotic protector. Yes, the game introduces a villain named “Mr. X” as its diabolical schemer, but I absolutely refuse to humor the notion of another Mega Man antagonist for a THIRD fucking time. Besides, Mr. X’s resemblance to Dr. Wily is uncanny, so even the developers knew that they couldn’t maintain their own charade. While I’ve given up on taking the Mega Man conflict scenarios seriously, at least the themes of the robot masters behind the plot are intriguing. Capcom crafted a slew of cool robot masters with a cultural theme one tasteful degree above Nintendo’s Punch-Out!
Squeezing six games onto one console has an implication that a lot of time has passed since Mega Man’s birth in 1987. By late 1993 when Mega Man 6 was released, the SNES successor to the NES was well into its course as Nintendo’s primary soldier in the console wars. In fact, the SNES had been available on store shelves for so long at this point that those interested in playing Mega Man 6 most likely had to dig through their closets and blow off the dust that their old NES system had freshly collected. Some may ponder why anyone would be interested in regressing to the outdated guard briefly when the future was in full swing and why Capcom didn’t bother to simply develop Mega Man 6 for the current console. From another perspective, Mega Man 6 had the advantageous position of being a practically posthumous period release on the NES because it could comfortably relax in the house that all of the preceding NES titles (including previous Mega Man games) had painstakingly crafted with their blood, sweat, and tears. It’s a smaller house than the SNES that was under construction at the time, but a fully erected living space is far cozier. Due to the lack of mechanical strain, Mega Man 6 looks fantastic from a graphical standpoint. Every 8-bit texture that renders the eight robot master stages and the interior of Dr. Wily’s castle is refined to near-perfect, pixelated perfection. The foliage of the hanging rainforest trees is remarkably green and textured to the point of seeing every individual leaf. The pistons holding together the man-made foundation of Tomahawk Man’s stage are as finely detailed as the natural crags of the rock formations outside. Every star over the background city seen from the entrance point of Wily’s castle shines brighter from that view than the scene of space in Star Man’s stage from the last game. Mega Man 6 proves that 8-bit graphics are a legitimate aesthetic.
What interests me more pertaining to the levels in Mega Man 6 has less to do with how they are graphically rendered and more with their design. Mega Man 6 unfortunately may only offer a couple of alternate routes to change the trajectory of the destination to a robot master as it is this game’s means of unlocking Beat. Still, at least the game puts a calculated effort into diversifying the straightaway trek for every other level. If one can recall back to the first Mega Man game, they’ll remember that the weapons did more than act as alternatives to the blaster and counter the element for the contrasting robot master. Mega Man 6 continues what was abandoned in Mega Man’s debut by blocking extra lives and energy/weapon tanks behind large, compact cubes of junk. To unearth these impediments to obtain these items, Mega Man needs a gadget that is not granted to him until he defeats a certain number of robot masters. The catch is that there are instances where vital pickups are obscured behind these crude formations across every level, so the player is persuaded to replay the levels to gather all of the goodies. Also, confining a hefty quantity of these types of items to these out-of-reach nooks and crannies means they are in less abundance, so the player cannot suck down a twelve-pack of energy tanks when they are slightly wounded anymore.
Which item allows Mega Man to manipulate the mounds of mechanical dirt? I guess how Mega Man 6 defines its strides of innovation is with the alternate suits that replace Rush. When selecting either the Jet Suit or Power Suit in the menu upon unlocking them, Rush appears as he converges with Mega Man, turning Mega Man’s armor to the crimson sheen of his canine companion. The Power Suit is bulky and is the method of disposing of what stands between Mega Man and his rightful energy tanks. Holding the attack button will launch a deadly blast of energy, but it is constricted to a short range. The Jet Suit, on the other hand, allows Mega Man to soar gracefully like a rocket blasting off into space, but more akin to one of the hobby models that craps out after a few seconds. The only caveat is that the charge shot will be unavailable, but we’ve already ventured through three Mega Man games before the charge shot was even conceived and managed to survive. The primary perk of the suits is that they refill their fuel automatically upon depletion instead of needing to walk over an energy replenisher and invite all players to keep this apparatus on at all times as I did. The alternate suits are the new implementation of the Mega Man formula that sticks out in my mind for their usefulness, but it still raises a few questions. Does Rush meld into Mega Man with the mechanical malleability of a Transformer, or does he shed his modular armor for Mega Man to use as a token of assistance? Is he just a simple dog underneath the suit, running off to Dr. Light’s house to chase squirrels and drag his ass across the carpet whenever Mega Man is borrowing the outer layer of his body?
The alternate suits are also a welcome addition to Mega Man 6 because they compensate for the charge shot’s comparatively limp power capacity. Upon charging the standard blaster, searing energy still flows throughout Mega Man’s being, but the range and impact of the fully charged release feel far less impactful when dealing with enemies. The convenient crutch that I’ve been using for the past two games has been nerfed, probably an intentional effort from the developers to coax me into shuffling through the robot master’s weapons outside of their battles. Overall, the robot master weapons in Mega Man 6 do nothing to impress because a lot of them are recycled from previous games. Plant Man has a shield that performs exactly what one would expect, Flame Man has another fire weapon, Knight Man’s projectile morning star top and the Yamato Spear both have a straightforward trajectory, and Centaur Man’s flash weapon should inspire strong memories of a certain robot master from Mega Man 2. The “blizzard” attack barely amounts to a fucking flurry. While I’m completely underwhelmed by what’s in Mega Man’s arsenal, at least there are no impractical weapons such as Stone Man’s or any effortless screen obliterators like Gravity Man’s, both from Mega Man 5. Because the developers knew that the player would be exhausting more of the ancillary fuel from the weapons, Mega Man 6 introduces an energy balancer that supplies the most depleted weapon with energy from another to fully refill it. Thanks, Capcom. I wish they thought of this when the Metal Blade was still in Mega Man’s grasp.
I’m also underwhelmed by Dr. Wily in Mega Man 6, and it isn’t because Mr. X reveals himself to be Wily with more facial hair because I’m not a brain-dead simpleton. The two castles that lead up to Dr. Wily are perfectly challenging, with some spiky blindspots during some drops that vanquished me more than I’m willing to admit that reminded me fondly of Quick Man. I’m referring to the final duel between Mega Man and the mad doctor that takes place in three stages, as par for the course. Again, the first two stages see Dr. Wily attempt to crush Mega Man under the weight and force of stomping him, and then the third stage involves Dr. Wily disappearing periodically to give Mega Man a fleeting chance to aim a shot while dodging a series of cyclones. Fortunately, the upward angle of the Silver Tomahawk allows Mega Man to end the all-too-familiar fight in seconds. After experiencing deja vu from Wily’s final fight from the previous game, Mega Man mixes up the result considerably and finally puts the scourge of the robotic world under arrest, tying him up with rope as if he’s planning on placing him on the train tracks. I’m almost proud of Mega Man for placing Dr. Wily in custody, but it's taken him too goddamn long to do what is necessary for me to seriously commend him.
I guess Mega Man 6 triumphs over the previous Mega Man game in its commitment to reverse some aspects back to the earlier entries. Mega Man 5 was a facile experience with too heavy of a reliance on the booming charge shot and an inexhaustible amount of energy tanks at the player’s disposal. Hiding the items behind walls and channeling less firepower into the charge shot so as not to eclipse the series staple of robot master weapons started to remind me of the challenge I had come to associate with Mega Man. Still, the lack of inspiration with the weapons despite the solid theming of their users along with Dr. Wily phoning in his final challenge against Mega Man is further indication that Mega Man had run its course on the console it was born onto. While Mega Man 6 is still a more respectable experience than the last entry, the series is still long overdue to wrap things up like the series hero eventually did with his mortal nemesis.
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Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com