Let me get this out of the way first... breathes in... - THEY ADDED AN ACTUAL WEAPON SELECT SCREEN! I don't know why that excited me so much, but it did. No more dumb initials on the lower half of the screen. A full screen menu with actual weapon names this time. Anyway, moving on...

I'm happy to report that MM3 was not just simply a case of series fatigue, but rather just a case of subpar level design. MM4 doesn't feature as much innovation, but that's okay, because the level design here is pretty darn good - maybe even surpassing MM2's for me. I like how the second half was divided into two castle stages. Sure, it's still a test of endurance, but unlike MM3, I really liked the bosses in these castle stages for the most part.

This game features the addition of the upgraded Mega Buster, which allows you to charge up a more powerful shot. This was pretty helpful for taking down a handful of bosses more quickly if you happen to run out of energy on another weapon. But there's actually one thing I wish they had kept from MM3... free movement with Rush Jet is no longer a thing. Terrible. Disgusting. If I was a spiteful person, I'd take away an entire star just for that. But I digress, this is a great game. Definitely has similar replay value to 2, but overall this is the better game, I feel.

Reviewed on Jun 11, 2022


1 Comment


1 year ago

Great overview. I didn't know they added a select screen to this, that's sick. I'm also happy to know that based on what you said MM3 isn't suffering from series fatigue by this point. I recommend Little Samson if you haven't played it. It was designed by the lead designer of MM2 and is basically his passion project iirc.