Here we go again- another game exclusive amiibo to try and justify my purchase. For context in this review, my experience with the Mega Man franchise is exclusively from Mega Man 3, and that’s from when it came out in the 90’s.
First Impression
I see a window with an amiibo and buy it,then I realise the box can contain a 3DS game by its size- bonus! Inspecting the box I look at its contents: the amiibo (obviously), 6 postcards, and the game. The game also has extras included.
The game contains Mega Man 1 through 6, an added a challenge mode that is a remix of levels, and a museum mode that showcases concept art, sketches, etc. The 3DS version has a lot of sweet extras packaged in the game as well. Two theme downloads for your 3DS (Vs Dr. Wily and Level Select), four stickers (you get Mega Man, Protoman, the Dr. Wily logo and Met), 18 songs from the six Mega Man games, a bonus 100 pictures in the museum feature, and the Mega Man amiibo unlocks 11 challenges.
Playing the Game
The main menu looks like it’s right from the game. The first thing I did was go straight to the music player and listen to the Mega Man 3 intro and the Gemini theme. Then I navigated to the first game.
Curious, I checked out the museum, and it is far more thorough than I imagined. It started off with box art both front and back, cartridge, advertisement, and it was for Japan, Europe and North American editions. And by box art, it is literally a flattened out box scanned front and back, and a high res photo for the game cart. Then it’s followed by production art, character files (which have colour palette and reference model), and concept art for the game. I’m not a big Mega Man fan, but I found this feature really interesting and a neat insight to the creation of the series.
Not that I am avoiding playing the game, I checked out more features that are available for each game. The database menu has a profile that includes name, picture, health, attack power, and attack type for Mega Man and each enemy you will encounter. The options and controls menu did surprise me. Controls I expected, but there were options to add a themed border to the gameplay, as well as an option to switch between english Mega Man, and japanese Rockman. I decided to try out Rockman for an authentic experience.
Playing the game is exactly what I remember from the original release. I feel there is not much I can say about that other than the basic Mega Man experience. It is really hard, the enemy have set rules they follow, Mega Man controls are really tight, the bosses have their order for fighting them effectively, and you will die a lot. It is part of the reason why people called Nintendo games “Nintendo Hard”.
Amiibo
The same with other games bundled with amiibo, it comes in a box similar to what you would find on the shelf. Although this one has an eerie blank cardboard back. Fairly disappointed that it has the Smash Bros base. It would have been neat to see a gear or, to make no sense at all, the Dr. Wily logo.
TL;DR
This collection has the first 6 Mega Man games in one. A perfect road trip through gaming nostalgia. Includes a lot of great physical and digital extras.
Verdict
If you are fan of the NES Mega Man games, this is worth your time. The games feel exactly as they did when they first came out. If you are a fan of Mega Man, and haven’t bought all the games on virtual console, this will definitely be a great addition to your collection.
Say you never played a Mega Man, but you like the new retro style games like Shovel Knight. Then this will be an exciting adventure for you, getting to play the roots of these kind of games. You’ll find challenge in learning the limitations of Mega Man and the limited software. The game actually slows when it hits object limit. And it doesn’t feel like it’s due to emulation. I say you should buy it, or try it at least.
Not a fan of retro games? Don’t fair well with side scrollers? The amiibo may be cool, but the game is not your cup of tea. The game can be extremely challenging. Near pixel precision and constant repetition needed to throw bodies at the game to figure out some parts. I bought it for the amiibo and for merely the fact that I want to beat it, I have been trying to complete Mega Man 1.
