Mega Man is still Mega, Man. (Mega Man Legacy Collection)

[N1njaSquirrel]

The Mega Man Legacy collection came out last week, and I've been slowly burning through all 6 Mega Man games in the collection.

 

I've never really played a mega man game before, so this is a real joy to play. What's even more surprising is how insanely playable it still is, as well as really tight with the controls.

 

What's great also is how well it's emulated. Everything from the slowdown to sprite-flickering is emulated on this, which gives it a really great nostalgic feeling, and is bizarrely enjoyable. 

 

I've just finished MM2, and the last boss was the most insane, goofy ending. I can't wait to delve into the 3rd one.

 

So who's got this game? let's exchange strats, passwords and E-Tanks.

[tberton]

I'm waiting to pick it up for 3DS.

[BobbyBesar]

I've never really played a mega man game before, so this is a real joy to play. What's even more surprising is how insanely playable it still is, as well as really tight with the controls.

...

I've just finished MM2, and the last boss was the most insane, goofy ending. I can't wait to delve into the 3rd one.

 

MM2 is the best game. (Not just best Mega Man game: the best game). It's one of the few games from that era that I can consistently replay and enjoy.

 

I think that it holds a place for me that the original Super Mario Bros. does for some people. To be honest, I never really loved SMB, but Mega Man 2 just clicks for me. It also has pretty much the best music on the Nintendo.

 

Feel free to post detailed impressions as a first timer. I'm curious to see what the experience looks like for a new player today.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Feel free to post detailed impressions as a first timer. I'm curious to see what the experience looks like for a new player today.

 

Sure thing! Here goes:

 

Straight away the difference between the first and the second is subtle, but noticable. Two screens of weapons, the addition of the E-Tank and the graphical change between the two main pickups made it a lot cleaner visually, as well as making it easier to read.

 

Control-wise, it's much the same. It's still as tight as the last one, and just as satisfying.

 

The music is also a lot better. Dr. Wily's theme is outstanding. I could listen to that forever.

 

The level design for the main 'men' are by-and-large outstanding. The Heat Man stage was probably my favourite. The invisible blocks were a work of genius. The timing being so perfect, and then the way it slowly weens you from the safe ground, to the less safe fire, to the cavernous ravine was superb. Air man was probably my least favourite. the giant faces were kinda lame, and were a butt to get through.

 

Going into this, I already knew some stuff about the game, like Air man being weak to wood-man, and that I had to defeat heat-man to defeat wood-man,

, so I already had a kinda level strat worked out in my head. I also knew from some preview video that I watched that bubble man was generally considered the  first port of call. After that, things got a bit confusing, and I kind fluffed my way through the rest of the man stages.

 

Then the Dr. Wily stages were a mixture of frustration and excellence. The Dragon was fantastic, the box enemies were frustrating until I learnt their pattern, the weird puzzle sensor things was just a pain and required perfect inventory management, as it seemed that only crash both were the only weapon that worked on the enemy and the blocks. Finally Dr. Wily was kinda easy.

 

 The last boss was a riot. From a confused 'what the fuck does kill him' to an 'ohhh this weapon' and then the goofy pay-off was amazing. It's so confusing as to why they keep on letting Dr. Wily live, but I guess that's old games for you?

 

Finally, some of the weapons were really pointless. Maybe it was a matter of two many that I got confused, but the Freeze weapon was pointless, I never used it, and never worked out why it's useful. Also the 3rd platform thing I couldn't get when it'd be useful. By and large, I used the wood weapon, the normal beam and occasionally the bubble weapon. Everything else was just used when it was neccessary.

 

Still, it's definitley better than the first one.

[undermind9]

Three was always my jam - and this

 

Two was much better than one - but in my youth played it after 3 & 5 - so some of the future game upgrades going backwards was always harder.  I specifically remember Heat Man blocks to be infuriating, quickman level to be a pain in the ass, and then Airman just sucking.  Then finally get to the dragon and my pre-mature skill would just fall apart...and into the abyss

 

 

All this talk makes me want to buy the collection again - but ive already purchased some on Wii VC, got the old Gamecube re-releases (awful control scheme).  Perhaps a good steam sale in the future, can train my future son on the finer points of platforming

[BobbyBesar]

Interesting. On future playthroughs, you may be interested to learn the proper order:

1. Metal Man
2-8. Lol, doesn't matter

[Zeusthecat]

I have the Mega Man Collection for the Gamecube and I think it has 1-8 on it. I had a friend over a few months ago and we spent a couple hours playing Mega Man 2 and it was great. I'm thinking now that I should go back and spend some more time experiencing these games. I've never played any Mega Men before aside from Mega Man X on SNES and that was the first time I had popped the GCN collection in after owning it for over a decade.

[Twig]

backwards buttons on gamecube shudder shudder

[N1njaSquirrel]

Why wasn't 7&8 included? That's really annoying. Here's hoping for dlc in the future.

Also, there are two things that might entice people: there are challenges that are pretty fun. The ones I played revolved around doing sections/bosses on a time limit.

Also, there are kinda save states. However it is kinda cumbersome, and not as smooth as the wiiu's save state system. I tried to use it at opportune moments, instead of relying on it. Like the disappearing block bit in the first one. Or getting to the yellow devil. It made my play through more pleasurable, but maybe the feeling of victory is slightly dampened? Still, fuck the yellow devil. That guys real hard.

Oh, there's also an auto fire button, which makes things easier.

[tberton]

They restricted it to the first six because they were all on the NES and they thought that was best to keep the collection coherent.

[atte]

I've never really played a mega man game before, so this is a real joy to play. What's even more surprising is how insanely playable it still is, as well as really tight with the controls.

That is so nice to hear! Mega Man 1 is my favourite, mainly for nostalgia reasons but the whole NES hexalogy is near to my heart. The compilation extras are quite nice: It's cool how you can watch challenge replays from the leaderboards and I loved the museum art collections.

 

Going into this, I already knew some stuff about the game, like Air man being weak to wood-man, and that I had to defeat heat-man to defeat wood-man,

, so I already had a kinda level strat worked out in my head.

Have you seen 'No Sleep Until Clear!' also?

[Tanukitsune]

(Obligatory "Why isn't this on Vita?" whining)

[Vorlonesque]

I picked up the legacy collection, and oddly enough also ordered an NES cart of the original Mega Man off ebay or amazon recently (which wasn't in as nearly as nice a condition as my Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 carts which were pristine (MM2 had the box and manual and everything)...but the original Mega Man is a little more expensive and harder to find so I went with cheaper and a bit scuffed up).

 

The legacy collection is cool because it gives me access to the games that I want to play but don't have a real nostalgic connection to in the same way as the first 3 without having to have even more physical carts (and to order more stuff).  If I'm really into something I tend to prefer having the cart.  That way when I have more space and can get a 15khz CRT RGB monitor and setup a dedicated space for those games I really really have a fondness for (read: an obsession for) I'll have them handy.  It also makes it easy to rip them with the kazzo device I have for emulation purposes in the meantime (and using some shaders I can get them looking pretty good on my high resolution GDM 5411 CRT).

 

I really like that they included some filters with this collection.  They aren't perfect (the scanlines seem a bit too thin and don't quite look like what you'd find on either a dot mast or an aperture grille CRT), but they're good enough (particularly the monitor filter).  My biggest gripe is that on a 4:3 monitor the Steam version ends up running in letterbox and then cuts off the sides so you end up playing the game in small little square, but that's more a result of my being an edge case (someone who still uses a 4:3 CRT (1920x1440 @75Hz) for modern games).

 

I'm currently playing through the first Mega Man right now (I don't know if I ever actually beat the thing as a kid or just got to Dr. Wily's castle) and its weird that it brings back very specific childhood memories.  I remember having a friend over (which was rare because we lived about 15 minutes outside of town in a rural area so it was a big occasion when other kids visited the house) and we rented Mega Man and I remember playing Ice Man's stage and both of us just screaming at the screen every time we'd screw up the blocks that pop in and out of existence or whatever and that we managed to get through it (we'd take turns...he'd try and then I'd try and then my brother and we'd keep at it until we got through it).  I still hate those on that stage.  They're fine on Heat Man's stage; I can almost do it by muscle memory that I somehow retained from the 3rd grade or something, but the blocks on Ice Man's stage are a fucking pain.