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Mega Man 4 review

Game: Mega Man 4
Platform: NES
Genre: Action (Platformer)
Developer: Capcom
AKA: RockMan: Aratanaru Yabou!! (JP)

Reader review by overdrive

March 10, 2004

It’s completely understandable if Dr. Wily was feeling just a bit of frustration by the time that Mega Man 4 rolled around. After all, as a three-time loser in his battles with the Blue Bomber, the not-so-good doctor was on the verge of becoming a joke like the infamous adversaries of the Harlem Globetrotters -- the Washington Generals.

And let’s face it -- if there is one thing the average maniacal mad scientist fears, it is becoming insignificant. Odds are that Wily’s nightmares were full of visions of Mega Man sitting back, feet propped up on his desk and telling Dr. Light, “Wily’s on the loose again? I’d love to help and all, but I just ordered this pizza....why don’t you just send Roll or someone? Stopping that chump would be an okay first mission for a rookie, but it’s a waste of my time...”

Fortunately for the forces of evil, Wily’s cognitive powers stretched beyond building robots and twitching his eyebrows. The evil little fellow proved he also was adept in the arts of hostage-taking and blackmail. Next thing you know, Wily’s sitting back in his easy chair working on his third snifter of brandy while someone else has to sweat over the mission of removing Mega Man from existence.

That someone is a Russian scientist named Dr. Cossack and, unfortunately for Mega Man, he seems to be somewhat more skilled than Wily when it comes to throwing a challenge in Mega Man’s face.

That’s right. Maybe it’s just me, but this game seemed to have a few more tough areas than the last couple entries in this series. The eight preliminary levels are stuffed with nasty surprises for Mega Man and tend to really take some effort to get through.

Pharaoh Man’s Egyptian-style stage opens with a particularly rough scene where you must take Mega Man through a quicksand desert while dodging a seemingly never-ending array of mechanical scorpions. Toad Man’s level opens with you attempting to make a number of jumps into a particularly strong headwind. Dive Man’s stage brings back bad memories of Bubble Man’s stage in the second Mega Man with you attempting to dodge lethal spikes while contending with your robot's dramatically enhanced underwater jumping ability.

And that’s not all. The stages belonging to Skull Man, Bright Man, Dust Man, Drill Man and Ring Man also offer up a slew of challenges that can test the reflexes, skill and patience of most gamers.

Make it through those eight levels and you get to go through your first fortress -- a Russian citadel created by Cossack. For those who glanced at my review of Mega Man 3, you might remember that one of my main complaints about that game was that the designers simply recycled four of the original levels as a bridge between the robot masters and Dr. Wily’s fortress. Well, Capcom got it right in this game. Adding a new character, making him a sub-boss and giving him his own multi-stage castle was a brilliant touch.

While the Russian scientist does have a few challenging sections to his lair, inevitably he will fall and the true villain (Wily) will be exposed. Keeping true to the pattern established by earlier games, Mega Man 4 climaxes with a trek through Wily’s fortress and an epic multi-part confrontation with the Blue Bomber’s arch-nemesis.

Now, from reading that summary of the game, one might offer the hypothesis that this game is essentially identical to previous efforts in the series with only a few changes (such as the second fortress). Well, for the most part that is a correct assessment -- but there are a few new concepts that do need to be addressed.

As is the norm for this series, each new game does give Mega Man a couple of new abilities. Here, for the first time, you’ll be able to charge up your normal pellet gun to emit a more powerful burst of energy. Obviously, this is extremely useful, assuming you are skilled enough to avoid taking hits while waiting for your gun to power up. Mega Man’s gun approaches the power of the average robot master weapon when powered up -- and does not have limited uses like they do.

Fliptop is a much more limited accessory. At a few points, this walking treasure chest will amble up to you and toss you a goodie of some sort. Obviously, if you’re low on life or desperately need to recharge a robot master weapon (and he drops the corresponding item), you’re in luck. However, the odds are pretty high that his random drop will be something you don’t need.

There also are a couple of hidden accessories that you can find by going off the linear path in two of the stages. While the Balloon and Wire can make things easier (and help you get hard-to-reach items), they aren’t necessary to the completion of the game.

Another new factor of this game is that until you enter Cossack’s castle, you can re-enter conquered robot master stages. Why would you want to do this? Well, there is one very important reason. Remember how I said this game was tough? Well, by going through certain stages repeatedly (like, say -- Skull Man’s), you can pick up additional energy tanks. The more tanks you have, the more likely it is that you’ll survive Wily’s final gauntlet of bosses. Harvesting energy tanks in this manner is quite an effective way of overcoming some of this game’s inherent challenge.

In keeping with the positive attributes of Mega Man 4, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention three things that Capcom always excelled in with their NES Mega Man games: graphics, sound and play control. The music and play control are on the same high level as the previous games in the series, but the graphics are a bit improved.

The outdoor sections of Cossack’s castle, with the evergreen forest in the background, was particularly striking. The desert in Pharaoh Man’s stage, the bone platforms in Skull Man’s level and the large and colorful bosses in both Cossack’s and Wily’s fortresses also illustrate the beauty of this game.

But all is not rosy in the world of Mega Man. If you’ve never played a game in this series or are not overly familiar with the first three, then ignore what lies ahead because it won’t apply to you -- but if you are intimately familiar with the first three games, then beware.

You see, as I progressed farther in this game, the experience just started to feel stale. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that so many things about this game were unbelievably similar to past games.

No, I’m not simply talking about things like the general plot or the skeleton of the game (beat robot masters, take their weapons, use them to beat Wily) -- I’m talking about far more specific instances.

Just look at some of these robot masters, their weapons and (in some cases) their actual stage. Bright Man is eerily similar to MM2’s Flash Man. Drill Man’s weapon has a function that resembles MM2’s Crash Bomb. Take Skull Man’s shield and replace the skull with leaves and you have MM2’s weapon of choice for Wood Man. Like I mentioned above, Dive Man’s stage bears more than a passing resemblance to Bubble Man’s stage in MM2.

Notice a trend? While I realize that many fans of the series look at Mega Man 2 as the most fun to play out of the bunch, was it necessary to lift so many elements from it?

Dr. Wily’s personal two-part ship also is very reminiscent of his vessel in the first two games. Shoot its first form until part of it breaks off (revealing Wily) and then battle its second form -- while dodging shots all the while. At least Cossack’s ship was a new and innovative contraption for the series -- not a rehash of a piece of machinery used in earlier games.

For the veteran player of this series, this lack of originality could be the most depressing thing about this game. Think about it -- Capcom finally puts everything together and comes up with a very large game (19 or 20 stages) that’s beautifully illustrated and is truly fun and challenging to progress through....and then cops out by choosing tried-and-true weapons and bosses over completely original creations. The fact that this game follows the same general format as its predecessors isn’t a problem in itself, but when so many of the “little things” also fall into that pattern, the overall enjoyment generated by the game can become diminished.

But I don’t want you to think I have nothing but negative feelings about this game. Newcomers to the series will eat Mega Man 4 up and veterans will have to appreciate all the improvements this game adds to the MM Formula. If you stand this game up on its own, it would be an instant classic -- and for that reason alone, it deserves a high rating.

It’s only when you look at this game from the standpoint of it being the place where the NES Mega Man series began to show signs of age that flaws begin to pop up. The redundancy on display throughout the game prevents it from being rated a “perfect 10”, but rest assured that Mega Man 4 is one of the best platformers that can be found for the NES.

Rating: 9/10

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