Mega Man Review by: Boxia - 1.2/10
Please, please not this game.....The Mega Man series has definitely seen its share of horrible ports. These include Mega Man and Mega Man III for PC (I guess Mega Man 2 was too good to butcher) and Mega Man II for GB (OK, maybe not!). But another horrid MM port came along, this time for Sega's Game Gear. The Game Gear was a portable console, and inferior to the Game Boy in every sense of the word "inferior". Despite that, Capcom licensed an MM game for the GG that was developed by a company called Freestyle and published by U.S. Gold. Seeing as how all of the ports mentioned prior were all developed by companies other than Capcom, you'd think that Capcom would now start to think twice before giving the task of developing a MM game to another developer. They didn't, and they paid dearly. Let's see why this game is so bad!
Story: 1/10
The story is taken mostly from the opening cut scene, which is largely torn from MM4, minus a few major details. For one, Dr. Cossack isn't here, just Wily, who has managed to take over the world with his robots. One day, Rock, some random robot whose master isn't even named, decides that he wants to be converted into a fighting robot, citing "a strong sense of justice" as his motivation. Rock is then turn into Mega Man. That's about it.
I give the story a 1 out of 10. So many details are cut out of this games copied story that the plot of a 1910's era silent movie would be more intricate. Details as minor as the name of Rock's master (Dr.Light) to major characters such as Dr. Cossack are completely erased. Another beef i have is that no new sub-plots or new characters were added. Even those PC ports and MMII for GB had new characters! What we are left with after the subtraction of all those details and no additions is a pathetic story that is shallower than a puddle.
Gameplay: 3/10
Mega Man is tasked with eliminating Dr. Wily and the Robot Masters the latter has sent after the former. You first face off against four robot masters brought back from MM4 and MM5: Stone Man, Bright Man, Napalm Man, and Star Man. You must advance through stages that are copied over from MM4 and MM5 to fight these bosses. At first, you only have your default weapon, the Mega Buster, to fight with. The Mega Buster can be charged, and doing so will deal more damage than uncharged shots. When you defeat a Robot Master, you will get their weapon. These weapons can help you out in certain stages or against certain bosses. Be forewarned, however, that you can only use each special weapon a certain amount of times before running out of energy. To help you out with stages and/or bosses, you can collect items such as e-tanks, extra lives, weapon energy, and regular energy.
I give the gameplay a 3 out of 10. This is probably the only part of the game that isn't absolute garbage. The controls are comfortable, though unresponsive sometimes. The energy system is balanced, as always, but that's not really a huge part of the game. Otherwise, stages are boring to play simply because they were copied from NES MM games with nothing new added.
Graphics: 1/10
The best way to describe the graphics in this game is "MM5 viewed right close up after smashing your own face in with a sledgehammer.” Seriously, the game looks as though you're viewing it with a telescope, probably so you can see how little effort went into the textures. Enemies are deformed, Mega Man looks like a chimp, and background textures look like they were fed through a wood chipper. There's also a big problem with flicker, as well. Some objects will disappear and reappear almost as quickly as they vanished. The biggest problem however, is the issue of the telescope sight. Because the screen is zoomed in so far, you won't be able to see quite a few obstacles and you'll have to take a leap of faith quite often. Not fun.
I give the graphics a 1 out of 10. There's flicker, chimp-robots, textures that look like the just recently came out of blenders, and a view of the game that'll likely kill you many times over. There's nothing good about the graphics. Nothing at all.
Sound: 1/10
The whole soundtrack is copied over from MM5 AND MM4. At least they weren't gunning for a new soundtrack, like MMII for GB, or for no soundtrack, like in those PC MM games. The whole plan probably seemed fool proof- the soundtrack will be good because they're just bringing it back from those NES MM games. Unfortunately, the GG had some, erm…….. technical limitations in the field of sound. Take the opening title, for example. That tune was brought back from the title screen of MM5. Instead of sounding bouncy and energetic, however, this song sounds like a depressed 2-year-old was playing the instruments. Just about every song now sounds like it was created with tin cans and teaspoons.
The sound effects aren't any better. When you fire a weapon, it sounds like someone is hitting a tin can (they really like their tin cans, don't they?), and when you fire that weapon repeatedly, you get a horrifying medley that makes you want to tear your ears out. The same can be said with all of the sound effects, essentially.
I give the sound a 1 out of 10. An orchestra of tin cans is the best way to describe it. Who knew that attempting to make music with tin cans would have such disastrous consequences? Seriously, you should probably mute this game, lest you tear your ears out.
Difficulty: 9/10
You're in for a heck of a challenge when you play this game. To be honest, I didn't expect this game to be that difficult, I mean, I never found any MM game to be that difficult. When I first played the game however, I was surprised by how hard the game was! There are two things that make the game this difficult. First, there's the problem of telescope vision, mentioned above. This kind of view prevents you from seeing many enemies or obstacles. For example, in telescope vision, I’ll see a depression in the ground just up ahead. What I won't know if I’m playing this game for the first time is that the depression is either a bottomless pit, or a pit with spikes. I have to take a leap of faith across this pit, and I don't know when to stop and fall since I can't see the other side! Secondly, bosses are WAY more aggressive in this game than in the NES games. They will run and jump right into you, and they will not rest until either one of you dies. The only saving grace in this game is the abundance of powerups. These powerups really help out with some stages and bosses, be it with restoring your health, or your weapon energy.
Addictiveness: 1/10
There is nothing addictive about this game. Special weapons are unsatisfying, bosses aren't fun to fight because they're just so aggressive, and stages are uninteresting and dull. I wish I could say more, but I can’t. There's no fun to be had here.
Depth: 1/10
There are no hidden weapons, no collectables, and no hidden bosses. As for stages, there are 7. Four initial robot master stages, two more after those and one Dr. Wily stage. With my shear awesomeness, I can beat each stage in about 10 minutes, so it takes about 70 minutes for me to beat the game. Some players may take up to 20 minutes to beat a stage, so it'll take about 140 minutes for them to beat the game. There's nothing much to the game either way.
Overall: 1.2/10
Mega Man for the Game Gear is one of the worst ports I’ve ever played. It has bad gameplay, horrible music and graphics, an even worse "story", excessively high difficulty, and worst of all, it's not fun. Only play this game if you're a complete masochist.
Graphics
1 Sound
1 Addictive
1 Depth
1 Story
1 Difficulty
9
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