The Biggest Game Project on this Planet

Rockman Mega World

Wow!
Capcom sure has rereleased the heck out of their old Megaman games, and if it's up to them, they'll never stop! And you know what? I'm stupid enough to keep buying the same games over and over again! Yay for commercial whorism!

First there was Rockman Mega World, known as Mega Man The Wily Wars outside of Japan, then there were the rereleases on PSX, the Megaman Anniversary Collection, probably some versions I don't know of, and the near future holds Mega Man Powered Up, aptly titled Rockman Rockman (who the HELL came up with that, and why isn't he dead yet?) in Japan, a complete makeover for the PSP, looking a little something like this:



I'm not into the PSP AT ALL, and these updated graphics are definitely not a direction I want to see the Mega Man series going in, but when I read this game is going to have 2 extra bosses AND a level design mode, where you can apparently even exchange your own levels with friends through WiFi, I am once again becoming the sad consumer whore that I am, and I'm almost seriously contemplating getting one of Sony's sickening handhelds. Especially if they're going to do this for later Mega Mans as well.

Anyhoo, back to Rockman Mega World, which is more a Remake than a Rerelease as well.
Originally designed to introduce Mega Man on Genesis/Megadrive to the Sega Audience, this game contains "updated" versions of Mega Man 1, 2 and 3. The fact that it now plays on a 16-bit console (of sorts) means improved graphics, improved sound (well, the synth is slightly better, but none of the arrangements are as good as the originals), and you now get to play with the patented Atrocious Genesis Controller!You know, the one with the crappy ROUND directional pad (at least that's not as bad as the SQUARE directional pad from the Master System, where pressing right meant you were pressing up and down as well), and a whopping 3 ACTION BUTTONS! Wow! Please hold me, because I think I'm going to faint!

On the other hand, this being NES games, you only need 2 buttons anyway, and the third is used as an alternative menu button. Button layout on the Genesis controller is not quite as comfortable as on the NES control pad, though, although I didn't have any real trouble with it.

What I DID have trouble with are the tremendous changes in the "integrity" of the games. A good remake shouldn't change anything but Graphics and Music, and perhaps add some extra's. And this game DOES deliver in that respect. Graphics and Music are improved (although the music is really debatable, and why is it not in Stereo!?), and you get 7 extra stages, exclusive to this game.
The major mistake here is that they changed how the games work. First of all, Mega Man controls EXACTLY the same in all 3 games (with the exception of the slide added in Megaman 3), whereas the original NES games had some clear differences in control.
Although this shouldn't necessarily be a bad thing (the original Mega Man controlled like CRAP), the default they chose isn't very good.
You usually need to press the controller a little longer to start walking properly, which makes forward jumping in tight spots very awkward, and I also had the impression that Mega Man's weapon is slower than it should be.

To compensate for this, enemies are much MUCH faster, and for some reason the levels seem like they were slightly compressed. That is to say, it looks like they took the old screens and compressed them a little so that slightly more would appear on screen at one time, meaning in effect, that there are moments where you are assaulted by many enemies at once, whereas in the originals, they would neatly wait until you'd moved on far enough to trigger their appearance.
And you know what that means? SLOWDOWN! YAY!
The weird thing is that this game even suffers slowdown in the one-screen areas, where the NES NEVER did. EXPLAIN THAT TO ME, SEGA!
Also, either Mega Man jumps higher, or the levels have been compressed from the top and bottom as well. You can now make some jumps that you never could in the original, or where you needed Rush's help.

In other words, in some parts, these games are easier than the originals, and in others, they're much harder.
Still, only a fan would notice that. If you consider what this game was supposed to be, ie. the introduction of Mega Man to a Sega audience, noone is going to know, right? After all, you ARE getting 2 of the best NES games EVER, and....er.....Mega Man 1, plus extra bosses and levels, where enemies and design from these 3 Mega Man games are combined, which is actually pretty cool, especially since you can take 8 weapons of your choice from ALL 3 Mega Mans with you to tackle the new Bosses, which just rules.

Only true fans are going to know Capcom kind of raped the games, but if you're a real fan, you should just shut up and enjoy all the extra cool bits, which is what I did. As a value pack, it's superb, 2 great games and one not so great but made slightly better because of improved controls (they messed up the Cut Boomerang though!) on one Genesis Cartridge and extra levels make one happy Ingen, so I give this a 9. It could have been a 10 if they hadn't fucked up the controls and the speed. Still a great buy for any Mega Man fan or Genesis owner, if you can find it, cause it's rather LIMITED apparently. Now give me a PS2 remake already!

posted by Ingen! @ 11:02 AM