After a seemingly never-ending period of stagnation for most who weren’t die-hard fans of the Mega Man franchise, receiving game after game after game AFTER GAME that did nothing more to expand upon the franchise in a way that would be worth constantly going back to again and again and again, the series managed to pull itself out of that rut with the original Mega Man X. For the most part, it was still your average Mega Man title, but it managed to pump in just enough speed, action, new features, and iconic elements that would not only help start up a brand new sub-series for this franchise, but would also bring the series back up to shine in the spotlight for millions once again. So, after that brief detour into nirvana, the classic set of Mega Man games would continue doing its own thing for a bit, releasing another NES and Game Boy game now and then, but then, the time came to where Capcom decided to finally take the classic series to the 16-bit era, and they would naturally do so with the next chapter in the mainline series, simply known as Mega Man 7.
Just from the sake of circumstance alone, Mega Man 7 exists in this… odd little bubble, especially for the time that it came out. People were already so used to the hotness that was Mega Man X, loving how that game would take the classic formula and expand it in not just that game, but future sequels to come out, so whenever this game came out, it definitely went pretty much ignored by most people, for very clear reasons. Even today, when people go back to the classic games, this one is probably gonna be one of the last games anyone ever brings up, just because of the fact that it just kinda… exists. However, don’t think for a second that I am gonna diss this game because of that, because let me tell you…. I FUCKING LOVE Mega Man 7. Seriously, ever since I initially played it however many years ago, I have loved it oh so dearly, much like plenty of the other Mega Man titles, and if I can be so bold to say this, I would even consider it to be my favorite entry in the entire classic Mega Man series. I can definitely see why others would have a vastly different opinion then mine, which I will definitely get into as we go on, but for me, this game manages to continue the classic gameplay that we all know and love, while also adding just that little bit of extra content, to make it so wonderful to go back to even after all this time.
The story picks up sometime after the events of Mega Man 6, where Dr. Wily is FINALLY put behind bars by Mega Man, and the world seems to be at peace once more… that is, until due to Dr. Wily’s absence, several backup Robot Masters that he created out of fear of failure are activated, who would then start searching for Dr. Wily for quite some time. Eventually, they would locate where Dr. Wily is being held, and would thus start a rampage in the city to get him back, so it is up to Mega Man to get back in action, see what is going on, and defeat Dr. Wily once again in order to save the world….. again… for the millionth time………… the struggle never ends. The plot is pretty standard for a Mega Man game, but I do like how it does have some continuity with the previous game, and I really appreciate that they don’t try to hide the fact that it is actually Dr. Wily who is the villain the whole time (RIP Mr. X).
The graphics are absolutely fantastic, having an art style that I think fits classic Mega Man PERFECTLY, and having plenty of great enemy, character, and boss designs, as well as plenty of great animations to be seen throughout, the music is, naturally, pretty fucking great, having plenty of great tracks that I love like this one and this one, but I will admit, a lot of the tracks are a little too “samey”, which can make it feel pretty repetitive at points, and the gameplay and control is exactly what you would expect from a typical Mega Man game, except there are now elements of Mega Man X leaked into it, which does wonders to make the game much more interesting and fun to play, especially for me, who sees this as a match made in heaven, clearly.
The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of Mega Man yet again, go through plenty of different levels in whatever order you want (for the most part), run, jump, and shoot your way through plenty of different robo baddies, big or small, that will attack you on your way, gather plenty of different health/ammo pickups, different types of Tanks, extra lives, and plenty of upgrades to assist you in both the short and long-term, and take on a lot of bosses that are….. complete jokes most of the time, but there are one or two difficult bosses in there, so hey, I guess that… somewhat makes up for it, especially when you acquire their special weapons to use as your own against the many other foes that await you. A lot of what you typically expect in a Mega Man game is here and accounted for, which is already great for someone like me, but all of the new additions, the art style, and more make this what I would consider a damn-near perfect entry in this series, despite its very apparent shortcomings.
Taking inspiration from its younger sibling series, this game now adds hidden collectibles and upgrades that you can find throughout the game, and there are a FUCK TON of these things to find too, ranging from simple stuff like the letters R, U, S, and H that can grant you the Super Adapter, to some more hidden goodies and secrets that you can find such as being able to get Proto Man’s shield. While I wouldn’t necessarily say all of these upgrades are all that useful (Beat got a major downgrade in this game, unfortunately), a lot of them are a big help, especially later down the road, making the game that much more fun whenever you do get these and take full advantage of them. Not to mention, they aren’t that hard to find either, which makes one-hundred-percenting this game feel like a breeze, which is a nice change of pace for once. The secrets in this game don’t just extend to the items either, as there are also plenty of different hidden pathways you can take in stages if you know where they are, and there is even a hidden track that you can find in a certain stage if you know what combination of buttons to hit whenever you are going into the level. It sucks that it only plays once, but as a fan of GNG, this shit is legendary to me.
Alongside that, not much is changed about what you can see and do in this game, but there are several new, noteworthy additions that would become staples of the series, such as with the new characters that show up in this game, Bass and Treble. These two are pretty much just meant to be the rivals of Mega Man and Rush, with you fighting against him in the beginning intro stage of the game, who you will then find/fight again multiple times throughout the remainder of the game, and in this game, he is…. kinda whatever? I mean, he’s a cool character and all, and I love that he becomes a staple character in the series from here on out, but I dunno, aside from his final fight where he and Treble combine to take you down, he doesn’t really come off as that interesting or likable. Despite that though, he does get better in later games, so it is great to see that they stuck with him for quite a while, and he would even get his own chance to star in a game right alongside Mega Man as well…………….. to mixed results (we are gonna have fun with that game, let me tell ya).
In terms of how the game itself plays, it does play pretty much like your standard Mega Man game. Ya run, ya jump, ya shoot things, ya get new powers, ya set fire to the forest and murder all of the innocent animals because Mega Man is an asshole…… y’know, the usual shit. If you have played any of the other games in this series before and since this one, you know pretty much what to get out of this game, and it still manages to be really fun and addicting all the same…….. to me, that is. Yeah, we may as well bring up one aspect of this game that does manage to turn people away a lot of the time, and that is that, compared to the other Mega Man games before this, this game is… kinda stunted, at least, in terms of the main gameplay. It still plays and feels like Mega Man, but your movement speed feels reduced, all of the environments and enemies feel a lot bigger and more condensed, and Mega Man himself has a MUCH bigger sprite than before, making this game kinda feel like a bit of slog in comparison. Despite all that though… I have never really been bothered by that at all. Yes, it is undeniable how sluggish this game can feel compared to the other Mega Man games, but the way that you do move, shoot, and find all of these hidden secrets and upgrades still feels really great, just as great as playing one of these games should feel, and I manage to have a fantastic time with it either way. Does this make me weird? Eh, probably, but if you didn’t think that already at this point, you clearly haven’t been here long enough then.
Now, despite how much I will praise and defend this game, I can still definitely agree with some common criticisms that this game faces, such as the fact that some of the boss fights in this game FUCKING BLOW. In the previous Mega Man games, whenever you got to a boss with the weapon that was their weakness, it made the boss fights relatively easier for the most part, but there was still that sense of challenge that you could plainly face with a lot of them. In this game, however, if you go to any boss with their weakness, they become YOUR BITCH. Anytime you hit them with the weapon, they will get stunned long enough to get into a lock, meaning that you can constantly hit them over and over again before they even get the chance to do anything, and they will die very quickly. This isn’t an issue with all the bosses, but for some like Cloud Man, Junk Man, and ESPECIALLY Spring Man, they don’t stand a chance against you like this, which does kinda make them less fun. Ah well, at least we have other bosses that are still challenging…. even if they can be a bit much at times (fucking Wily Capsule, man…).
Aside from that though, the only other criticism in this game that I have is that the cutscenes, for as little of them as they are, are REALLY slow. Throughout the game, there will be plenty of instances where you will have characters talking about something, such as after you get a weapon in one of the main stages, or even after you defeat a boss, and while a good number of these have text that you can speed through, a lot of other times, you have to just sit there and waaaaaaaaait for them to go by, and maybe it’s just because I’m an impatient shit, but this drives me crazy. This is especially true with the intro cutscene, where whenever you start the game, you HAVE to watch this opening sequence of Mega Man, Roll, and Auto driving through this city, and then seeing Mega Man find Dr. Light, and everything else that follows. There is no option to skip this scene at all, so yeah, it really is somewhat of a buzzkill whenever I come back to replay this game and this cutscene shows up, meaning I just have to sit back and wait, tapping my foot impatiently. But hey, it’s ok, because in the good ol’ Mega Man tradition, we do get some fun little typos that are funny to see in some of these cutscenes. Makes you laugh and remember to just have a great time with the game.
Overall, despite how different it may feel, some pretty pathetic bosses, and how some of the cutscenes can be quite an annoyance, Mega Man 7 is yet another phenomenal entry in this phenomenal series, keeping the gameplay as fun and addicting as ever, adding plenty of fun upgrades and secrets to find and use throughout, and having the kind of presentation that makes this feel like a true, proper evolution for the classic series as a whole. I would absolutely recommend it for those who are big fans of the other games in the series, as well as for those who are tired of the 8-bit look that a lot of these games tend to get, because this one manages to be a massive upgrade in the looks department, and you will most likely end up loving the gameplay just as much as well. But y’know what… now that I think about it, I may have been a little too harsh on the cutscenes in this game, because you know what, they aren’t THAT bad……….. because trust me, they could’ve been a whole lot worse.
Game #595
Just from the sake of circumstance alone, Mega Man 7 exists in this… odd little bubble, especially for the time that it came out. People were already so used to the hotness that was Mega Man X, loving how that game would take the classic formula and expand it in not just that game, but future sequels to come out, so whenever this game came out, it definitely went pretty much ignored by most people, for very clear reasons. Even today, when people go back to the classic games, this one is probably gonna be one of the last games anyone ever brings up, just because of the fact that it just kinda… exists. However, don’t think for a second that I am gonna diss this game because of that, because let me tell you…. I FUCKING LOVE Mega Man 7. Seriously, ever since I initially played it however many years ago, I have loved it oh so dearly, much like plenty of the other Mega Man titles, and if I can be so bold to say this, I would even consider it to be my favorite entry in the entire classic Mega Man series. I can definitely see why others would have a vastly different opinion then mine, which I will definitely get into as we go on, but for me, this game manages to continue the classic gameplay that we all know and love, while also adding just that little bit of extra content, to make it so wonderful to go back to even after all this time.
The story picks up sometime after the events of Mega Man 6, where Dr. Wily is FINALLY put behind bars by Mega Man, and the world seems to be at peace once more… that is, until due to Dr. Wily’s absence, several backup Robot Masters that he created out of fear of failure are activated, who would then start searching for Dr. Wily for quite some time. Eventually, they would locate where Dr. Wily is being held, and would thus start a rampage in the city to get him back, so it is up to Mega Man to get back in action, see what is going on, and defeat Dr. Wily once again in order to save the world….. again… for the millionth time………… the struggle never ends. The plot is pretty standard for a Mega Man game, but I do like how it does have some continuity with the previous game, and I really appreciate that they don’t try to hide the fact that it is actually Dr. Wily who is the villain the whole time (RIP Mr. X).
The graphics are absolutely fantastic, having an art style that I think fits classic Mega Man PERFECTLY, and having plenty of great enemy, character, and boss designs, as well as plenty of great animations to be seen throughout, the music is, naturally, pretty fucking great, having plenty of great tracks that I love like this one and this one, but I will admit, a lot of the tracks are a little too “samey”, which can make it feel pretty repetitive at points, and the gameplay and control is exactly what you would expect from a typical Mega Man game, except there are now elements of Mega Man X leaked into it, which does wonders to make the game much more interesting and fun to play, especially for me, who sees this as a match made in heaven, clearly.
The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of Mega Man yet again, go through plenty of different levels in whatever order you want (for the most part), run, jump, and shoot your way through plenty of different robo baddies, big or small, that will attack you on your way, gather plenty of different health/ammo pickups, different types of Tanks, extra lives, and plenty of upgrades to assist you in both the short and long-term, and take on a lot of bosses that are….. complete jokes most of the time, but there are one or two difficult bosses in there, so hey, I guess that… somewhat makes up for it, especially when you acquire their special weapons to use as your own against the many other foes that await you. A lot of what you typically expect in a Mega Man game is here and accounted for, which is already great for someone like me, but all of the new additions, the art style, and more make this what I would consider a damn-near perfect entry in this series, despite its very apparent shortcomings.
Taking inspiration from its younger sibling series, this game now adds hidden collectibles and upgrades that you can find throughout the game, and there are a FUCK TON of these things to find too, ranging from simple stuff like the letters R, U, S, and H that can grant you the Super Adapter, to some more hidden goodies and secrets that you can find such as being able to get Proto Man’s shield. While I wouldn’t necessarily say all of these upgrades are all that useful (Beat got a major downgrade in this game, unfortunately), a lot of them are a big help, especially later down the road, making the game that much more fun whenever you do get these and take full advantage of them. Not to mention, they aren’t that hard to find either, which makes one-hundred-percenting this game feel like a breeze, which is a nice change of pace for once. The secrets in this game don’t just extend to the items either, as there are also plenty of different hidden pathways you can take in stages if you know where they are, and there is even a hidden track that you can find in a certain stage if you know what combination of buttons to hit whenever you are going into the level. It sucks that it only plays once, but as a fan of GNG, this shit is legendary to me.
Alongside that, not much is changed about what you can see and do in this game, but there are several new, noteworthy additions that would become staples of the series, such as with the new characters that show up in this game, Bass and Treble. These two are pretty much just meant to be the rivals of Mega Man and Rush, with you fighting against him in the beginning intro stage of the game, who you will then find/fight again multiple times throughout the remainder of the game, and in this game, he is…. kinda whatever? I mean, he’s a cool character and all, and I love that he becomes a staple character in the series from here on out, but I dunno, aside from his final fight where he and Treble combine to take you down, he doesn’t really come off as that interesting or likable. Despite that though, he does get better in later games, so it is great to see that they stuck with him for quite a while, and he would even get his own chance to star in a game right alongside Mega Man as well…………….. to mixed results (we are gonna have fun with that game, let me tell ya).
In terms of how the game itself plays, it does play pretty much like your standard Mega Man game. Ya run, ya jump, ya shoot things, ya get new powers, ya set fire to the forest and murder all of the innocent animals because Mega Man is an asshole…… y’know, the usual shit. If you have played any of the other games in this series before and since this one, you know pretty much what to get out of this game, and it still manages to be really fun and addicting all the same…….. to me, that is. Yeah, we may as well bring up one aspect of this game that does manage to turn people away a lot of the time, and that is that, compared to the other Mega Man games before this, this game is… kinda stunted, at least, in terms of the main gameplay. It still plays and feels like Mega Man, but your movement speed feels reduced, all of the environments and enemies feel a lot bigger and more condensed, and Mega Man himself has a MUCH bigger sprite than before, making this game kinda feel like a bit of slog in comparison. Despite all that though… I have never really been bothered by that at all. Yes, it is undeniable how sluggish this game can feel compared to the other Mega Man games, but the way that you do move, shoot, and find all of these hidden secrets and upgrades still feels really great, just as great as playing one of these games should feel, and I manage to have a fantastic time with it either way. Does this make me weird? Eh, probably, but if you didn’t think that already at this point, you clearly haven’t been here long enough then.
Now, despite how much I will praise and defend this game, I can still definitely agree with some common criticisms that this game faces, such as the fact that some of the boss fights in this game FUCKING BLOW. In the previous Mega Man games, whenever you got to a boss with the weapon that was their weakness, it made the boss fights relatively easier for the most part, but there was still that sense of challenge that you could plainly face with a lot of them. In this game, however, if you go to any boss with their weakness, they become YOUR BITCH. Anytime you hit them with the weapon, they will get stunned long enough to get into a lock, meaning that you can constantly hit them over and over again before they even get the chance to do anything, and they will die very quickly. This isn’t an issue with all the bosses, but for some like Cloud Man, Junk Man, and ESPECIALLY Spring Man, they don’t stand a chance against you like this, which does kinda make them less fun. Ah well, at least we have other bosses that are still challenging…. even if they can be a bit much at times (fucking Wily Capsule, man…).
Aside from that though, the only other criticism in this game that I have is that the cutscenes, for as little of them as they are, are REALLY slow. Throughout the game, there will be plenty of instances where you will have characters talking about something, such as after you get a weapon in one of the main stages, or even after you defeat a boss, and while a good number of these have text that you can speed through, a lot of other times, you have to just sit there and waaaaaaaaait for them to go by, and maybe it’s just because I’m an impatient shit, but this drives me crazy. This is especially true with the intro cutscene, where whenever you start the game, you HAVE to watch this opening sequence of Mega Man, Roll, and Auto driving through this city, and then seeing Mega Man find Dr. Light, and everything else that follows. There is no option to skip this scene at all, so yeah, it really is somewhat of a buzzkill whenever I come back to replay this game and this cutscene shows up, meaning I just have to sit back and wait, tapping my foot impatiently. But hey, it’s ok, because in the good ol’ Mega Man tradition, we do get some fun little typos that are funny to see in some of these cutscenes. Makes you laugh and remember to just have a great time with the game.
Overall, despite how different it may feel, some pretty pathetic bosses, and how some of the cutscenes can be quite an annoyance, Mega Man 7 is yet another phenomenal entry in this phenomenal series, keeping the gameplay as fun and addicting as ever, adding plenty of fun upgrades and secrets to find and use throughout, and having the kind of presentation that makes this feel like a true, proper evolution for the classic series as a whole. I would absolutely recommend it for those who are big fans of the other games in the series, as well as for those who are tired of the 8-bit look that a lot of these games tend to get, because this one manages to be a massive upgrade in the looks department, and you will most likely end up loving the gameplay just as much as well. But y’know what… now that I think about it, I may have been a little too harsh on the cutscenes in this game, because you know what, they aren’t THAT bad……….. because trust me, they could’ve been a whole lot worse.
Game #595
5 Comments
Mega Man 7 intro stage is the most underrated music piece in the franchise.
I need to try the Mega Man games again.
They’re just so difficult that I can’t seem to enjoy them. Would you recommend starting at Mega Man X?
They’re just so difficult that I can’t seem to enjoy them. Would you recommend starting at Mega Man X?
@Visionary_Gamer Absolutely! It is one of the best places you can start at with this series.
Mega Man 7 is my favorite classic series game. I'm glad that over time it gets more and more respect as one of the more brave and ballsy classic games.
Odyssey3004
23 days ago