There’s no real reason for Mega Man 4 to be a huge drop-off in quality. Really, looked at in a certain light, it’s got more polish than ever, but that’s part of the problem. Mega Man 4 is the double-digit seasons of The Simpsons; a high-quality failure whose greatest failing is a misunderstanding of what made the golden era of the franchise so perfect.
The plot and the presentation is straight-up intrusive here. From the opening video to Mega Man’s cartoon-ready presentation on the weapon get screens to the actual in-game dialogue from Cossack’s daughter, you get the feel of a game that really wants you to know it could be an animation if it really wanted. These touches don’t necessarily create the impression of a development team ashamed of the fact their creation is reduced to a video game, but it does make it seem aspirational, like being a fun, gameplay-focused video game isn’t enough anymore.
The levels are… cheaper? The series as a whole gets a bit of a bad rap for sudden enemies knocking you into pits or onto spikes, and up until now I don’t think that was merited, but the bullshit is here in spades. Lots of cheap one touch deaths, where twitch response or memorisation are now essential, and it feels like it’s replaced the smarter level design of the earlier games. This is particularly annoying in the obnoxiously plentiful Cossack/Wily stages, which outstay their welcome long before we even learn Cossack’s reasons for attacking us. Harsh but fair level design ruled the first three Mega Man games, and yet here it’s more common to just get comedically fucked over.
The robot masters… well… it’s nice to see Dust Man, a creation of Yusuke Murata, who would go on to be the artist for Eyeshield 21, as well as One-Punch Man. It’s nice to see him. But he’s a chump. As is Frog Man. Two entry points to the loop, and they’re both the sort of easy bullet sponge idiots I was hoping wouldn’t exist after MM3’s stronger opening gambits. On the plus side, half the weapons you get for blasting through this easy assortment of Masters are dreadfully boring, so you can resent your quick victories in more ways than one. It’s hard to be creative this many masters in, but a less good time freeze, a lump of shit, and a homing fist are not gonna get the old brain going, and frog man’s rain ability is just a great example of a power making ‘sense’ not stopping it from sucking.
The new robot master weapons aren’t the only new weaponry to hand, as we have a charge beam, which feels like a long overdue feature, mainstay of the series that it becomes, but that isn’t actually any more effective than my quickly flailing thumb is in most situations. Thankfully the wire grapple goes a bit further as a unique and interesting weapon, and the returning Rush abilities are… wait, why did this game have Rush Marine? I didn’t use it once! I forgot all about it!
All these abilities are chosen from the new pause menu, sending us completely away from the action for the first time so as to fit everything on one screen, and while it feels wrong somehow after the first three games, the added clarity of the full screen is appreciated.
I really can’t overstate how this outstayed its welcome with me. I don’t know that it’s actually any longer than the other games, especially considering the doc robot stuff in MM3, but by having two separate maps for the final sprint I had fatigue set in way earlier, not helped by the shittier design choices along the way. And then at the end I got a 3 stage Wily who’s beyond easy to beat. The first Wily boss literally has a safe spot to stand right next to it! That level of exhaustion with one of the most surefire franchises for me as a person who plays games is weird, especially when these games are all such short experiences.
A drop from 5 to 2 stars feels harsh, but MM4 feels like an exercise in making the wrong choices within the right framework. I know things improve quickly again, but for me this is the black sheep of the NES Mega Man games, and that’s a bit of a bummer. Onward to MM5, it can only go up from here.
The plot and the presentation is straight-up intrusive here. From the opening video to Mega Man’s cartoon-ready presentation on the weapon get screens to the actual in-game dialogue from Cossack’s daughter, you get the feel of a game that really wants you to know it could be an animation if it really wanted. These touches don’t necessarily create the impression of a development team ashamed of the fact their creation is reduced to a video game, but it does make it seem aspirational, like being a fun, gameplay-focused video game isn’t enough anymore.
The levels are… cheaper? The series as a whole gets a bit of a bad rap for sudden enemies knocking you into pits or onto spikes, and up until now I don’t think that was merited, but the bullshit is here in spades. Lots of cheap one touch deaths, where twitch response or memorisation are now essential, and it feels like it’s replaced the smarter level design of the earlier games. This is particularly annoying in the obnoxiously plentiful Cossack/Wily stages, which outstay their welcome long before we even learn Cossack’s reasons for attacking us. Harsh but fair level design ruled the first three Mega Man games, and yet here it’s more common to just get comedically fucked over.
The robot masters… well… it’s nice to see Dust Man, a creation of Yusuke Murata, who would go on to be the artist for Eyeshield 21, as well as One-Punch Man. It’s nice to see him. But he’s a chump. As is Frog Man. Two entry points to the loop, and they’re both the sort of easy bullet sponge idiots I was hoping wouldn’t exist after MM3’s stronger opening gambits. On the plus side, half the weapons you get for blasting through this easy assortment of Masters are dreadfully boring, so you can resent your quick victories in more ways than one. It’s hard to be creative this many masters in, but a less good time freeze, a lump of shit, and a homing fist are not gonna get the old brain going, and frog man’s rain ability is just a great example of a power making ‘sense’ not stopping it from sucking.
The new robot master weapons aren’t the only new weaponry to hand, as we have a charge beam, which feels like a long overdue feature, mainstay of the series that it becomes, but that isn’t actually any more effective than my quickly flailing thumb is in most situations. Thankfully the wire grapple goes a bit further as a unique and interesting weapon, and the returning Rush abilities are… wait, why did this game have Rush Marine? I didn’t use it once! I forgot all about it!
All these abilities are chosen from the new pause menu, sending us completely away from the action for the first time so as to fit everything on one screen, and while it feels wrong somehow after the first three games, the added clarity of the full screen is appreciated.
I really can’t overstate how this outstayed its welcome with me. I don’t know that it’s actually any longer than the other games, especially considering the doc robot stuff in MM3, but by having two separate maps for the final sprint I had fatigue set in way earlier, not helped by the shittier design choices along the way. And then at the end I got a 3 stage Wily who’s beyond easy to beat. The first Wily boss literally has a safe spot to stand right next to it! That level of exhaustion with one of the most surefire franchises for me as a person who plays games is weird, especially when these games are all such short experiences.
A drop from 5 to 2 stars feels harsh, but MM4 feels like an exercise in making the wrong choices within the right framework. I know things improve quickly again, but for me this is the black sheep of the NES Mega Man games, and that’s a bit of a bummer. Onward to MM5, it can only go up from here.