The Mega Man Anniversary Collection is exactly what the title says - another collection, featuring that shiny blueberry man in all his glory. It contains the first eight Mega Man games that came out for the NES, SNES, and Dreamcast. However, it doesn’t contain any of the Mega Man X series. If you aren’t a Hardcore Mega Man player and you like the easier Mega Man games, then this collection’s for you. Mega Man games are known to be easier than the Mega Man X series of games.
Presentation:
This Mega Man series deals with the usual enemy, Dr. Wily. And of course to assist Mega Man is Roll, Rush, Proto Man, and Dr. Light. The Mega Man Anniversary Collection follows the series’ classic storyline of Dr. Wily attempting to take over the world with his Maverick Robots.
As usual, Mega Man must venture out and destroy Dr. Wily’s robots, seeing as he is "The Blue Bomber." (Wait... since when does Mega Man use bombs?)
The Collection’s menu was quite nice in my opinion. To select which game you wanted to play, you’d move your Mega Man character from door to door to Start, Load, go to Secrets or go to Options for each of the Eight games.
The game also suprised me when I came accross the extra two games, both Arcade Games, that were never released in North America. They’re multiplayer and aren’t related to the actual Series at all, they’ve got the Bosses, but that’s the only real similarity. They are partially like Streetfighter games, but with guns and such.
Gameplay:
Seeing as this is a bunch of Original NES/SNES/Dreamcast games, the controls were really basic. For the NES games, the controls were the same, until you hit Mega Man 3 where you gain the Charge ability. It was pretty much: A to shoot, B to jump, Down+B to slide. However they did add an Auto-Fire button to Mega Man 1 and 2, which was the Y button; in 3 - 8, Y was just a second fire button.
The overall level-design was pretty bassic in the NES games; it’s almost the same design in every level you’d enter, then there’d be slight changes, like color, texture, some ladders, etc. The only difference you’d really notice is when there were puzzles or enemies. The puzzles in the game were extremely annoying. Although they looked simple enough to do, if you fell down you’d have to start over again. It wasn’t fun.
All Megaman games are full of Bosses. It’s like a trademark. You have your usual Rock-Paper-Scissors type boss fighting. You kill a boss, (such as an electricity type) then you can use his power against another boss (such as a metal boss, because metal conducts electricity). This made the Boss Fights a little easier and provided the player with somewhat of a competitive edge, when the bosses would usually die within 3 - 4 hits from whatever they’re weak against. I found it good that the Mega Buster did the same amount of damage to all bosses, which was helpful in case I didn’t have the special that the boss was weak against.
Moving on to the SNES game (Mega Man Seven). In this game, they added a twist. You could collect bolts from fallen enemies, and bolts can be exchanged for items from the Item Shop, such as Energy Tanks, Upgrades, Extra Lives, etc. Also, in the Dreamcast game (Mega Man Eight) they did a similar thing, however the scale was much lower on how many bolts you could collect per level.
Graphics:
Mega Man 1 - 6 used the old pixelated NES graphics, which I love. The sliding animation sucked, mind you, and so did the jumping. When Mega Man slid or jumped, the design on his belt and his helmet seemed to dissapear, along with the cannon. He kinda turned into a big slab of blue with a face.
Then Mega Man 7, of course running on the SNES and doubling the bits was greatly improved. The graphics were softer, not as hard, and it had a better all-around look. There was far better arm movement in the moving and jumping animations, and the overall animation was better.
Then Mega Man 8 appeared for the Dreamcast. The graphics were far better than both the NES and the SNES. Instead of being completely pixelated, there was use of polygons; the game was built in a 3D Engine, even though it was a 2D Sidescroller. It still had some pixelation, mind you. The animation was refined again, and was amazing compared to the previous versions.
Sounds:
Well, you’ve got your typical NES type sounds for 1 - 6. Plus that music that plays for the entire god damned level, no matter how long you leave it on, just keeps playing. Even with the bosses. However in Mega Man 8, they gave him a voice. Even though he looks like a teen, he sounds like an eight-year-old boy.
Lasting Appeal:
The presentation in the game was great, the gameplay was awesome, the graphics were uber. But the sound and the music... I can’t stand the repeating midi music. I actually enjoyed the game on mute. Nevertheless, Mega Man Anniversary Collection is a really sweet game. If you’re a Mega Man fan and you don’t already own this game, I suggest you run to the closest retailer and buy one.
